


Hunters, Lies, And Leaders

by IAmAshamedOfMyFanfics (faraandmera)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: "graphic depictions of violence" may be a bit much, AU, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Friendship, broken bones and that, but people get messed up sometimes, centered around the leaders, hoshi centric, inspired by rwby and hunter x hunter but mostly rwby, seungcheol centric, slight ot13, woozi centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2018-08-07 05:37:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 34
Words: 68,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7702678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faraandmera/pseuds/IAmAshamedOfMyFanfics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hunters are trained warriors meant to fight monsters. They're here to learn how to do deal with monsters, after learning how to fight. Why it seemed like most of the students don’t know what their doing, is beyond them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reasons and Beginings

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted to tumblr (iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148588543195) with the following as it's info:
> 
> Pairing: None S.Coups, Woozi, and Hoshi centric (platonic ot13 and unit specific friendships)  
> Genre: Friendship, Fantasy  
> Universe: Other AU  
> Rating: PG13 (probably)  
> Length: Chaptered (ongoing)  
> Warnings: Violence

When Soonyoung was young he wanted to dance. In his years since then that passion hasn’t fallen apart, but he’s gained another. To protect. Hunters fight monsters and Soonyoung wants to be one. When Soonyoung is old enough- and a year few years later- he attends a combat school and finds his passions aren’t as far apart as he thought. Fighting and dancing aren’t so different, just with different goals. His movement are quick, sharp, and he can- for lack of a better term- dance around his opponents. Though human and monster fights are very different, his speed and ability are effective in both.

So he applies to a hunters school. Pledis Hunters Academy is intimidating. A large structure home to teachers that were once master hunters and students who will one day be. Soonyoung feels excitement well it’s way into his chest as he stands at its gates. Teams will be formed- four to six students each- and Soonyoung will have one to work alongside until he graduates. Maybe even after as well.

The thought is what helps him shoot out of bed the morning of his second day. The day he’ll be assigned a team.

 

When Jihoon was young he wanted to create. In his years of life, Jihoon discovers a well of intelligence lying behind his own eyes and, though the need to create never leaves him, he finds another goal. To create strategies that will better the defenses of his kingdom from the monsters that trails at its edges. When Jihoon is old enough, and ready, he attends a combat school and finds that being strong isn’t as important as being able to win. Humans and monsters may be different, but Jihoon knows he can work around them both until he’s won either way.

So he applies to a hunters school. The best way to get your ideas out there, to get people to pay attention to your strategies, is to be a hunter. Respected and loved, hunters kill monsters so the people trust them. Jihoon feels unease as he stands outside the schools gates. Pledis Academy for Hunters is not only known for strong warriors, but smart minds. Though Jihoon has faith in his own abilities, there’s no telling what kind of minds await within the school. Soon he’ll have a team, maybe even lead one if professors see potential in him, that he’ll fight alongside until he graduates.

The thought is what forces him to get out of bed the morning of his second day. He’ll be assigned a team and doing well will make or break his future.

 

When Seungcheol was young he wanted to care for others. In what way he wasn’t sure, but years following gave him a way. Hunters fight monsters and protect people, care for them. It’s less direct, but it’s still what he wants. So once Seungcheol is old enough, and sure enough, he applies to a combat school and finds an ability he didn’t know he had. Though not the strongest at his school, Seungcheol is strong enough to hold his own. Though not the smartest, Seungcheol is smart enough to work around students stronger than him. Humans and Monsters may be different to fight, but Seungcheol thinks at least it’s enough to tell him he can do it. He can fight monsters.

So he applies to a school for those who want to be hunters. The building shouldn’t be intimidating, he’s been there before due to his father formerly being a teacher there, but being a student makes it more looming. Makes the knowledge that he’ll be spending years there, with a team, until he’s fit to be a hunter is intimidating. Is he really good enough for this? Seungcheol likes to think he his, but he doesn’t really know.

The thought motivates him to get out of bed the morning of his second day and prove himself. He’ll be assigned to a team and he need to be ready to earn their trust.

 

To determine teams students draw lots. Their partner during tests to determine team members will be who’s name they draw. From there each partnership will be tested and then assigned to a team. There’s no guarantee who your partnered with will even end up on the same team as you, which makes the whole thing seem pointless, but that’s how it works.

Soonyoung’s partner is Chan. A boy a few year younger than him, he Soonyoung can’t help but think doesn’t look like he belongs in a school like this. At least not yet.

Jihoon partner is apparently no one, he learns. A student never shows up leaving the numbers uneven and Jihoon partner-less.

Seungcheol’s partner is Mingyu. A tall boy with a nervous demeanor that makes Seungcheol question his readiness to fight. But he’s supposed to trust who he works with.

The first of the schools tests is a fight between groups. Each partner set fights another under the supervision of two professors. It’s a simple practice, one that combat school students have been through time and time again. But unlike combat school, all of these students have graduated combat school, they all know their strengths by now.

Seungcheol and Mingyu are paired against Soonyoung and Chan. Though from an outside perspective, as Jihoon has, it mostly seems like Seungcheol against Soonyoung. Not to say the other two don’t do anything, but their skill and reactions fall behind.

To start he fight, they all great each other, then take stances. A bell rings, and the open, empty arena sits in silence as they wait for someone to make the first move.

It’s Soonyoung who moves first, speed always having been his strength, and runs forward. As if trying to follow his lead, without knowing what it is, Chan runs to the side to get an angle. In response, Seungcheol steps back and presses his back to Mingyu’s. Soonyoung moves forward, normally they would have weapons but without them hand to hand combat becomes the only option. He kicks out at their feet and it’s only Seungcheol pushing away from Mingyu, and thus pushing Mingyu forward, that keeps it from working.

Seungcheol rolls forward and kneels in place for a second before moving himself. While Mingyu continues to stumble; Soonyoung would have gone for him if not for Seungcheol’s fist. Soonyoung steps back in time for Seungcheol to only hit the air in front of him, but it does it’s job of putting space between Soonyoung and Mingyu.

Mingyu turns to them, to see what’s happening, and is caught off guard by Chan doing what should probably be expected. Chan jumps at him, in an attempt to knock Mingyu over, only to end up hanging off of him when Mingyu manages to maintain balance.

“Well, this did not go as planned.”

What could barely be called a fight follows between Mingyu and Chan, but Jihoon can’t bare to watch it and turns his attention back to the other half of the fighters.

Seungcheol kicks in a quick motion at Soonyoung’s legs, who stumbles back before retaliating by drawing one of his leg around Seungcheol’s and sending him off balance. Soonyoung follows him the ground, fist drawn back only to have his wrist grabbed and be flipped over and rolled away from Seungcheol. They're both back on their feet, standing at a standstill for a moment before moving forward again.

There’s not much strategy, Jihoon notes. In this case that isn’t a bad thing; fights like this don’t have terrain to use and they haven’t yet figure out each others styles enough to use that. If it goes on for long enough strategy will come into play- even be the deciding factor- but for now their both operating on instinct.

“Watch out!” Speaking of instinct, the other fighters have separated. That being due to Chan being thrown in the general direction of Seungcheol and Soonyoung. He hits the ground, back first, and even from the distance he’s at Jihoon can hear the air getting knocked out of him. Soonyoung stumbles back, stares wide-eyed, and becomes an easy target for the clumsy fist that Mingyu throws.

Soonyoung falls from the force, rolls until he can push himself up, and finds himself on the receiving end of a kick from Seungcheol. To the face. Soonyoung falls back onto his back, and blinks back into awareness. He pushes himself onto his arms, glances shortly at Chan- who is pulling himself back together to fight- and then at Seungcheol’s legs.

Then he runs; gets up and ducks past Seungcheol and at Mingyu. He’s faster than Seungcheol is, especially when Chan manages to take the hint and grabs onto Seungcheols leg- easy to do from his spot on the ground- and pull Seungcheols legs out from under him.

“What-” Seungcheol’s words get cut off by his head hitting the ground. It’s clear a second later that Chan doesn’t know what to do from there, because Seungcheol pulls himself out of his shock and regains the upper hand, kicking Chan away.

Meanwhile Soonyoung take advantage of Mingyu’s stature and clear method of operation- instinct- to gain his own upper hand. Mingyu tries to defend himself from a strike he’s expecting, only to be caught off guard by Soonyoung grabbing his right arm and moving around behind him. Soonyoung pushes himself forward, raises a leg shin-first into Mingyu’s back, and the force sends Mingyu tumbling face first into the ground.

Chan doesn’t have as much luck. Though he’s quick enough to avoid Seungcheol’s attacks, mostly, he’s also only able to do that. Fighting back doesn’t seem to be happening. Which team will win, Jihoon doesn’t know. Because they’re probably evenly matched.

The answer doesn’t come. Ringing echos through the arena and a professor raises his hands to draw everyone’s attention.

“That’s enough. You can stop now, we’ve seen enough.”

“What?” Mingyu asks, probably louder than he should, but doesn’t get a response. Soonyoung offers him a hand, though, and he’s back on his feet while the professor calls forward the next group.

“They’ll probably lead their teams,” Jihoon muses to himself, watching as Soonyoung and Seungcheol shake hands.

“You think so?” Jihoon jumps at the voice and glances at the professor- there were two present he should have noticed one of them was next to him- who he hadn’t realized was there. He smiles, and Jihoon shrugs.

“I mean I don’t know what you guys are looking for specifically, but I thought so.”

“Why’s that?” Jihoon blinks, glances back at them again, and then nods to himself. He wont get to fight, so he has to show his abilities somehow. Showing that he can assess the situation is one way to do that, right?

“Soonyoung was able to figure out- and subtly direct- a strategy to switch opponents. Seungcheol was able to figure out the threats and kept Mingyu- who clearly hadn’t realized who was a bigger threat yet- out of the way of Soonyoung’s attacks.”

“Hm, I guess so.”

Jihoon doesn’t respond again, just goes back to observing matches. The next it between the pair of Seungkwan and Jeonghan versus the pair of Junhui and Seokmin.

A victor is decided in that; the latter pairing winning.

By the end of all the matches, Jihoon has realized something. Most of the students in this year- a whole thirteen- don’t seem as experienced as he would expect even an average combat school student to be.

There are a few that clearly know what their doing, Soonyoung and Seungcheol have clearly been in sparing matches like the ones combat schools have regularly. There are also a few students that seems to at least know how to fight. He noted Junhui, Minghao, Jeonghan, and Hansol as people to mentally place in that category. But everyone else? They acted like they had never so much as been in a real fight before.

It was just Jihoon’s luck that there wasn’t actually a second test. Not as pairs at least. Everyone was on their own for the second test.

“Because of the number of students this year, we’ve decided you’ll be separated into three teams,” One of their professors- the one Jihoon spoke to earlier- explained. “These teams will be decided in this test. Each of you has been assigned a target, one of your fellow students. Alongside this, you’ve each got a ribbon. You must tie it around your arm. If you lose it, or it’s taken you’re eliminated. Your goal is to take your targets ribbon, then their targets, and so forth. Once only three of you remain, we will decide teams.”

“We’ll give you ten minutes to prepare, then you’ll meet us outside,” The other professor tells them. Outside is a large, forested, training ground. More terrain and thus the ability to hide if you wanted to.

 

Soonyoung ties the ribbon around his arm- it’s blue- and pulls it tighter with his teeth. “I wonder what everyone’s strategy will be.”

“If you managed to wait it out you could be one the three left,” Seungcheol hums, “But that probably wont do you much good if you don’t manage to even get near your target.”

“Who’s your target?” Soonyoung glances at the paper in Seungcheol’s hand. Seungcheol stuffs it into a pocket.

“Wonwoo.”

“Oh?” Soonyoung narrows his eyes, trying to emphasis his suspicion that Seungcheol is lying.

“Who’s yours?”

“Seokmin.”

“Should you really be sharing your targets so easily?” Jihoon mutters from behind them, they both jump and spin around.

“If it isn’t the one who got out of the last test,” Soongyoung notes, laughing.

“Jihoon,” Jihoon offers, glances around at all the student.

“Does that mean you wont share your target if we asked?” Seungcheol asks, in response to Jihoon’s earlier comment.

“Yes.” Jihoon nods, glancing at the red ribbon in his hand. “I wonder why they’re different colours.”

“You think there’s a reason?”

“You think there’s not?”

“Fair enough. There are only three colours,” Seungcheol tugs at the black ribbon tied around his own arm, “And three people remain at the end.”

“Maybe they already decided teams and this is all just to rank us.” Soonyoung’s comment get’s silence as the other two consider the idea.

Seungcheol glances around the room again, noting who has black ribbons. His target- Wonwoo- has one. As do Hansol and Mingyu. “If that was the case I would end up on a team wit Mingyu again.”

“Is that a good or bad thing for you?”

“I only had one fight with him, I don’t know yet.”

“Sometimes one fight is all you need.” Jihoon doesn’t pay attention if either of them respond, instead following Seungcheol’s lead and glancing around for everyone with red ribbons.

Jeonghan, Seungkwan, Seokmin, and Jisoo. If Jihoon remembered all of their name correctly, those where the ones.

“Ah, then Jihoon would be on the larger team.” Soonyoung does the same.

Chan- who Soonyoung knows at the very least he could work with- also has a blue ribbons. As do Junhui and Minghao. Soonyoung wants to note himself as lucky, but this is all just a theory and he doesn’t want to put too much faith in it.

There’s a ringing that echos throughout the room reminding everyone of the end of their prep time and telling them to go outside.

“Well, we will find out after this, right?” Soonyoung grins before making his way to the exit.

“I guess so,” Jihoon sighs, following.

“Good luck guys,” Seungcheol adds, making his way there as well.

“You’ll be allowed to run freely around the grounds for sixty seconds before you may start the test.” Their professor raises a gun- a flair gun, actually- and shoots it off. In a second people are scurrying around, trying to find places to hide or noting where their target goes.

Seungcheol throws aside subtlety, following Wonwoo. Soonyoung climbs a tree and follow Seokmin from above. Jihoon focuses on hiding himself, but notes where one Wen Junhui goes.

Sixty seconds reach an end, and another flair goes up. The second test has begun.


	2. Hunting Jeon Wonwoo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148597449205/
> 
> Posts two chapters in one day because I have no self control.

Seungcheol knew there was something to be said about subtlety and careful planning. That didn’t stop him from going with the most direct method possible when dealing with the challenge presented to him. Take the ribbon tied to one Jeon Wonwoo’s arm. It was a simple task and his directness wasn’t to say he wasn’t careful. Seungcheol expected resistance and even the possibility that Wonwoo would escape him. It was that he knew he could come up with another plan if the most direct route failed, that lead him to throw subtlety out the window.

Even during the sixty seconds before the second test technically started, he’d been following Wonwoo. He was almost certain the other was well aware, probably knew Seungcheol had him as a target. But that wasn’t going to stop Seungcheol.

A flair goes up, signaling the end of the sixty seconds, and Wonwoo spins around. If hes turning because Seungcheol is there, or because that’s the direction of the flair, Seungcheol isn’t sure. There a silent standstill, where Wonwoo stares at Seungcheol and Seungcheol stares at the ribbon tied to Wonwoo’s arm. If Seungcheol is entirely honest, the way Wonwoo stares at opponents- something Seungcheol watched during the first test- is a bit intimidating.

The pause lasts but a few seconds, then Wonwoo spins on his heels and takes off full-sprint to the left. Well, the left from Seungcheol’s perspective. Seungcheol follows, watching for any hints that he’s being lead into an environment he can’t fight in. It’s nothing but trees that fills the space around him as he follows Wonwoo but caution isn’t a bad thing.

Wonwoo turns, hand on a tree stump using it to corner without losing his balance. Seungcheol turns before reaching the tree, trying to gain any distance he can to getting closer to his goal. They’re running in circles, Seungcheol realizes.

How can someone run for so long? His lungs burn in a way he’s familiar with from the beginnings of his training. It’s not a pleasant feeling. Though he takes solace in the fact Wonwoo is slowing, breath heavy as well.

Wonwoo is out of breath, out of energy, and makes a mistake. Foot catches on a tree root and Wonwoo stumbles, falls, and lets out a startled noise. Seungcheol wastes no time- even if he himself is out of breath- moving forward to grab the ribbon tied to Wonwoo’s arm. The black silk is in Seungcheol’s hand- though still tied to Wonwoo- when Wonwoo flips over and kicks the legs out from under Seungcheol.

The material slips from Seungcheol’s grasp as he hits the ground. Mentally Seungcheol makes note to stop getting his legs pulled or kicked out from under himself. Outwardly, Seungcheol moves to stop Wonwoo who is lifting himself to run. One of Seungcheols’ leg wraps around one of Wonwoos’, while his other leg presses knee-first into the back of Wonwoo’s other leg. Wonwoo- hands on the ground as he was trying to push himself to his feet- spins around to break the locking of their legs. Seungcheol isn’t so worried about that, letting his legs slide away from Wonwoo’s. What he cares about is the fact that in turning, Wonwoo brought his arm closer to Seungcheol’s hand.

The realization that crosses Wonwoo’s face comes too late. The grip Seungcheol has on the ribbon is tighter this time and when Wonwoo tries to rip his arm away, the ribbon stays in Seungcheol’s hand. Wonwoo has been eliminated. Seungcheol got his target.

The sound of a bell rings out, drawing both of their attention.

_“Sixth elimination, Jeon Wonwoo.”_ The sound of their professors voice echos around the trees for a moment, letting everyone know. Seungcheol glances at Wonwoo, who shares his expression of confusion.

“Did we miss every announcement so far?” Seungcheol wonders aloud, pushing himself into a sitting position. He offers a hand to help Wonwoo into sitting up as well, which Wonwoo takes.

“I was too busy running to pay attention.”

“Me too.” Seungcheol laughs. “So who’s your- well, _my_ now- target?”

“Jeonghan,” Wonwoo sighs, pulling the slip of paper that says as much from a pocket.

“Want to come with me? There’s nothing for you to do being eliminated, anyway.”

“Would there be a point to that?” Wonwoo pushes matted up- from the running and fall- black hair from his eyes.

“Might make you look better to the professors ranking? Get practice that you might need? Lots of points.” Seungcheol grins, crooked and gives a shrug.

“I guess so.” Wonwoo nods. Hands reach to his knees to push himself to his feet, where he offers Seungcheol a hand. Seungcheol takes it and once he’s standing Wonwoo points to his ribbon in Seungcheol’s hand. “They’re both black, so if you tied mine to your other arm it might confuse someone. Buy you time.”

“That’s not a half bad idea.” Seungcheol grins, reaches to do just that when Wonwoo grabs the ribbon and does it for him. “Thanks.”

“I’ve got nothing better to do.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Seungcheol rolls his eyes, and they both laugh. “Let’s find Jeonghan then?”

“Let’s go.”

 

_“Seventh elimination, Lee Chan,”_ The professors voice rings out again while Wonwoo and Seungcheol wonder aimlessly in search of Jeonghan.

“We really did just miss the others, huh?” Seungcheol confirms though there’s no need to.

“Looks like it. I wonder who’s already eliminated.”

“This whole thing seems less like a test and more like a competition.”

“Maybe it is.”

“This school is weird.”

“Yeah.”

_“Eighth elimination, Kim Mingyu,”_ Echos around.

“Wow two so close.” Seungcheol sighs, stretches his arms out. “That means there are six people left, right? So three more eliminations.”

“Oh, yeah.” Wonwoo nods with an expression that Seungcheol isn’t really sure how to read.

“What?”

“Just surprised you did the math.”

“Wondering how many people I have to worry about. Isn’t lesson one in combat school to know how many much danger you’re in? Or it was at mine.”

“Ah, yeah… right.”

 

When they find Jeonghan, they’re a little surprised that he isn’t by himself. While they would have hid behind the trees, it’s too late for that as Jeonghan looks up at them immediately. Jisoo does as well, but with less worry. His ribbon is nowhere to be seen which paints a pretty obvious tale of what happened.

“So you were Jeonghan’s target?” Wonwoo is the one to ask, and Jisoo nods in response. Wonwoo makes his way towards Jisoo, and thus closer to Jeonghan. Jeonghan tenses but relaxes once he realizes Wonwoo doesn’t have a ribbon.

“Yep.”

Seungcheol doesn’t expect that Jeonghan will look away, to the conversation happening between the two eliminated, but he’s not going to ignore it. A step is taken, and Jeonghan’s head snaps back to Seungcheol, who smiles as if that will cover up the fact he’s trying to take the ribbon from Jeonghan.

“Don’t.” Jeonghan glares. Seungcheol’s smile is joined by a laugh that’s unconvincing in it’s attempts to sound non-suspicious. Seungcheol puts all his weight onto his left foot- in front of him- and moves forward. Jeonghan steps back and ducks to the side to avoid him.

“Wonwoo?” Seungcheol means to call out, but it comes out questioning. Still, Wonwoo takes the hint and- from his position closer to Jeonghan- grabs Jeonghan’s arm, keeping him in range for Seungcheol to reach.

“Oh for-” Jeonghan struggles, grabs the arm holding him and pulls in a way that’s just painful enough to send Wonwoo stumbling back. The effort is wasted, though; Seungcheol is already there with a hand ripping the red ribbon away from Jeonghan’s arm. “Son of a- what.”

“Sorry?” Seungcheol doesn’t sound sorry and Jeonghan sighs.

“Right.”

_“Ninth elimination, Yoon Jeonghan.”_

“Top five isn’t bad?” Seungcheol offers.

“I’ll take it, I guess,” Jeonghan shrugs. With a sigh, Jeonghan turns to Jisoo. “I guess your target is Seungcheol’s now, huh?”

“It would seem so.” Jisoo shrugs, a much softer motion in comparison to Jeonghan’s.

“Who was your target?” Seungcheol asks, walking closer.

“Jihoon.”

“Jihoon?” Wonwoo raises an eyebrow. “That’s… the guy who didn’t have a partner for last round, right? Real short?”

“Is he?” Jisoo frowns. “I just figured he was younger.”

“I mean, you could ask when or if we find him.” Jeonghan glances around them. “Or, _Seungcheol_ finds him.”

“Wish me luck? You guys could come with if you want.”

“I might as well, I’m invested now.” Wonwoo shrugs. What is it with all the shrugs, Seungcheol wonders.

“Why not?” Jisoo agrees.

“I guess I will, then.” Jeonghan nods.

_“Tenth elimination, Choi Hansol. The second test is now over, please return the the school.”_

“Or not.” Seungcheol laughs. “Guess we wont have to.”

 

Seungcheol, alongside the others, made his way back to the school’s main building. The ribbons that had belonged to them in his hands, his own left on his arm. When he arrives back, he can see lots of arms bare of ribbons and their professors waiting for them.

“That will be it. Your teams will be finalized tomorrow, after we’ve had time to talk about them more. For now, you all deserve some rest.”

Seungcheol glances around the students, who are slowly filing into the building on their way to their temporary rooms and rest. His gaze is broken by a person filling his view before throwing an arm over his shoulder. He glances at Soonyoung, who grins at him.

“You still have a ribbon!”

“Yep.” Seungcheol nods, then finds the blue ribbons still hanging from Soonyoung’s arm. “You too.”

“Yep,” Soonyoung chimes. “Can you guess the third? Or, I guess you would have heard all the elimination announcements so it wouldn’t really be a guess.”

“Actually I missed the first five. Was too busy with burning lungs to pay attention. But I’d guess Jihoon, since he was jisoo’s target.”

“That would be correct. I’d bet money that means will all be on different teams.”

“Who do you think will end up leading each team is the real question.”

“I’m pretty confident in myself, but who knows really?” Soonyoung smiles, stretches his arms out, and pushes through a door. “Anyway I’m going to get some rest. We’ll find out tomorrow, right?”

“Right.”

Seungcheol ends up staring at the ceiling when he lays down to get some rest. Who will his team be? Who will his teams leader be? He wants to believe in the ribbon colour theory. He wants to believe he’d done well enough to be his teams leader, but there’s no sense in thinking about it. With a sigh he closes his eyes and hope to get a little rest before finding out.


	3. Catching Wen Junhui

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During the second test, Jihoon takes a more subtle method in hunting his target.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148631129700/

Junhui was one of the ones Jihoon noted as actually seeming to know how to fight. As such Jihoon took to hiding himself while paying attention to where Junhui went, rather than outright following him. Jihoon needed strategy and he wasn’t going to be reckless about it. Sure, this was part of a test by the school, but they were judging their ability in a real fight so not doing his best was pointless.

When Junhui started to get too far for Jihoon to properly watch him, and as the flair signaling the tests beginning went up, Jihoon went after him. Stayed behind trees, stance low, and looked for any signs of Junhui letting his guard down.

 _“First Elimination, Lee Seokmin.”_ The voice of their professor rang out. Jihoon blinked. One down. If he hadn’t been lying, that meant Soonyoung had gotten his target. Jihoon glances around the tree he’s hiding behind, only to find Junhui looking in his direction.

Jihoon wasted no time spinning back around and running the other direction. Though he heard Junhui shout, there was no indication that the other was following, so Jihoon took a sharp right and decided to make his way back around from that direction. He’d messed up, Jihoon realized, this was going to make things harder.

Jihoon had caught back up- could see Junhui again from the trees- but Junhui was clearly on guard. With a frown Jihoon lowered himself closer to the ground and waited to move between trees until he was sure Junhui wouldn’t hear or see him.

Two more eliminations rang out while Jihoon followed Junhui. Seungkwan and Jisoo. Three down, seven eliminations left. The whole thing felt more like a contest than a skill test, but Jihoon wasn’t in any place to complain. Either way his skills would be displayed.

Though Jihoon didn’t want to think of hunting people as the same thing as animals or monsters, one thing was the same. Catching a target was easiest when they were trying to catch their own. Which made the moment when Junhui found his target the perfect opportunity.

Junhui and Minghao made startled noises when they saw each other. Minghao’s own blue ribbon was still tied around his arm, but he also held a red ribbon. Junhui glanced at the ribbons, then to Minghao’s face. Paying no mind to Seungkwan, who was following behind Minghao ribbon-less, Junhui shot forward while Minghao turned to run, weaving through the trees.

“Hey!” Seungkwan shouted as he was left behind, annoyed expression forming on his face. Jihoon could see Minghao running in circles, probably trying to break Junhui’s line of sight, as well as Junhui maintaining a chase. While neither of them were paying attention to either him or Seungkwan, Jihoon approached Seungkwan.

“Seungkwan, right?”

“Yeah?” Seungkwan sighed, glanced at Jihoon’s ribbon and then glanced back at the two running around each other. “Is Junhui your target?”

“Yeah. Want to help me?”

“Why?”

“Well, I need him to catch Minghao, and since Minghao eliminated you it would give you a chance at revenge while not being pointless to the test.”

There was a pause, where Seungkwan didn’t seem convinced. Then Seungkwan laughed and nodded. “Alright, why not? Tell me what you need.”

“Just trip Minghao up, or something. Make it easier for Junhui to reach him.”

“Got it.” Seungkwan nodded, smile that reminiscent of a child pranking their sibling on his face. Seungkwan put himself by a tree that Minghao and Junhui had run by multiple times. Jihoon was surprised neither of them had tried to change strategy within the time that had past so far. Minghao passed it, only to find himself falling to the ground after having Seungkwan kick his leg out.

“What? Why?” Minghao made startled questions, and tried to get back up before he was caught. He didn’t. Junhui jumped at him, tugging the ribbon away before Minghao could really process it. He threw his arms up in victory, before realization dawned on him.

“Wait why did you trip him?” Junhui glanced at Seungkwan, which gave him just enough of a chance to see Jihoon in his peripheral vision.

 _“Fourth elimination, Xu Minghao,”_ Rang out just as as Jihoon grabbed onto the blue ribbon tied to Junhui’s arm. Junhui grabbed it in an attempt to keep Jihoon from pulling it away. So Jihoon, rather than pulling at it, grabbed Junhui’s arm and pushed it away, thus pulling the ribbon further down Junhui’s arm.

“Please get off of me,” Minghao muttered from bellow them while Junhui turned to keep the ribbon from being pulled off of his arm.

“Could you wait, like, a minute?” Junhui responded, moving his arm from Jihoon’s grip and pushing it forward so the ribbon was back in it’s original place.

The whole thing was going nowhere, Jihoon realized. So he turned, pushed himself forward, knees first, putting all his weight on Junhui’s chest and thus sending the other to the ground. Though he could hear Minghao shuffle, finally able to move away, he didn’t pay much attention to that. Junhui had tired to catch himself, out of instinct, and now the ribbon was barely on his arm at all. Resting around his wrist.

Junhui didn’t have a chance to fix it, Jihoon grabbed his forearm and used all his strength to pull the arm and ribbon in different directions.

_“Fifth elimination, Wen Junhui.”_

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Junhui sighed loudly, letting his head fall back onto the ground.

“Thanks for the help, Seungkwan,” Jihoon says, turning his attention to where Seungkwan and Minghao stood.

“Sure thing.”

“That’s why you tripped me?” Minghao frowned before sighing. “I can’t believe I was eliminated so that you could catch Junhui.”

“Sorry?” Jihoon offered, “But you would have been my next target anyway and that would cause trouble.”

“I see your point. Don’t like it, but see it.”

“Good job,” Junhui added from his spot still on the ground. Jihoon stood and offered him a hand up which he took.

“So,” Jihoon starts, once again turning to Seungkwan, “Who is your target?”

“Chan.”

“Alright, then I’m off to find him.” Jihoon nods to himself, stuffing the blue ribbon he holds into a pocket.

“Wont need help again?” Minghao asks, though it comes out slightly muttered.

“Help would be nice, but I figured you wouldn’t want to. Any of you, actually.”

“I will,” Seungkwan raises a hand, “Maybe I’ll learn something.”

“May as well, there’s nothing better to do,” Junhui adds, shrugging.

“Well you have a point.” Minghao nods.

“Alright,” Jihoon nods, glances at each of them. “Do we have any idea where he is, though?”

“Nope. But, probably somewhere near whoever his target is, right?”Junhui says.

“But we don’t know who that is. Or where they are,” Minghao points out.

“Well,” Jihoon starts, drawing their attention back to him. “Who could it be?”

“Seokmin was the first eliminated.” Seungkwan tries to remember who was eliminated ins what order, and thus who’s left.

“And he was Soonyoung’s target.“

“How do you know that?” Junhui asks, raising an eyebrow at Jihoon.

“He said so. Anyway, Seungkwan was Minghao’s target, who was Junhui’s, who was mine. We don’t know who Jisoo’s was or who got him.”

“So that leaves Wonwoo, Mingyu, Jeonghan, Seungcheol, Soonyoung and Hansol as possible targets for Chan.” Seungkwan grins, seeming proud of himself for remember everyone that would be left.

“If Seungcheol was telling the truth, then Wonwoo is his target meaning it’s Mingyu, Jeonghan, Seungcheol, Soonyoung, or Hansol.”

“Mingyu’s target is Hansol, so that’s one more down,” Minghao adds, gaining questioning looks from the others. “I tried to get a look at as many peoples targets as possible… I only managed the one.”

“Still, that’s one less possibility.” Jihoon nods, mostly to himself. “So if we see Hansol or Wonwoo we know it isn’t them. At least unless someone else gets eliminated, in which case it could become them.”

“Either way, standing here isn’t helping, is it?”

“No,” Jihoon nods, “Let’s go then?”

_“Sixth elimination, Jeon Wonwoo.”_

“Well,” Jihoon sighs. “That’s one more. Too bad it wasn’t one of the one’s that we thought were a possible target.”

 

As it turn out, all their thought and information arranging was for nothing. Chan was the first person they found in their search. The training grounds are large enough to get lost in, and it seemed he was doing just that. Being lost.

“Normally,” Jihoon whispers, “I’d say we should carefully come up with a strategy. But there are four of us, so if we come from different directions one of us is bound to be able to catch him off-balance.”

Each of the others circle around Chan who continues to have not noticed. Though he’s on guard, which says at least that he knows someone could show up, he’s probably not prepared for multiple people to attack. Once Jihoon can see the others in positions around that will work, he nods to himself.

Jihoon picks up a twig, fallen from one of the many trees, and tosses it at Chan’s head. It misses, shape awkward and not aerodynamic enough to go on a straight path through the air. But it does it’s job; startles Chan enough to get him to turn around. Jihoon presses himself into the tree, back first, as he continues to hide. He hears Chan take off in a run, opposite Jihoon’s direction, and then turns around the tree to follow.

Junhui is the one that reaches Chan first. Though Chan notices Junhui before Junhui can grab him, he stumbles back. Managing to keep his balance, Chan spins around again, to run in another direction, but doesn’t get far. Jihoon has caught up, grabbing the blue ribbon tied around Chan’s left arm as the other turns. Chan falls back this time in his surprise, leaving the ribbon behind in Jihoon’s hand as it slides away from Chan’s arm. Chan grabs his arm, pain from the ribbon pulling minor, but annoying, and Jihoon offers him a hand up.

_“Seventh elimination, Lee Chan.”_

“Four of you?” Chan sighs when the others join them. “I can’t believe this.”

“It’s strategy.” Jihoon shrugs.

“Yeah… fair enough.”

“So,” JIhoon waves the ribbon around idly as he speaks. “Who’s your target?”

“Soonyoung.”

That wasn’t what Jihoon was hoping. Though he believes he could manage to take Soonyoungs’ ribbon- especially with the others helping him- the target being one of the people he actually noted as having combat school training wasn’t his favorite idea.

On that line of thought, Jihoon looked at the others in front of him. Being with them for even a little time as he has, and watching them fight each other in some cases, told him something. He was right. There was no way any of them had formal combat training. Maybe their raw skills were enough to get them into the school- that could be the case with some of them at least- or maybe they faked their way in. Either way Jihoon was sure they hadn’t been to combat school.

“Alright,” Jihoon says, finally. “Well we know either Mingyu, Jeonghan, or Seungcheol is his target.”

“We do?” Chan mutters, frowning.

“Process of elimination. We can go over why as we walk, if you want to come with us.”

“Sure, okay.”

 

They do explain the reasoning to Chan, while they search for others. However they don’t run into anyone else before the test ends. Mingyu, Jeonghan, and Hansol all being eliminated during their search. Every student is told to return to the schools main building, where they’re told teams will be decided and revealed the next day. Until then, they’re told to get some rest.

Which is exactly what Jihoon does. He doesn’t know what his standing is in the eyes of their professors, but he does know that he was one of the last three left, and that he’s one of the three he actually believes to have real combat training. In fact, the other two he believes have training- Seungcheol and Soonyoung- also happened to be the other two that were left at the end of the test. Jihoon sort of wonders who would have been left if it hadn’t ended at three people.

Thinking about it, though, doesn’t have much point. Jihoon needs rest. There’s no point thinking about it too much. He’ll have a team tomorrow, and that’s what he should focus on. His eyes fall closed, his thoughts fade, and sleep takes him into the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who's wondering or has a hard time visualizing i like it do the target order was this:
> 
> Seungcheol > Wonwoo > Jeonghan > Jisoo > Jihoon > Jun > Minghao > Seungkwan > Chan > Soonyoung > Seokmin > Mingyu > Vernon > Seungcheol
> 
> Also if anyone has weapon suggestions for them in all ears.


	4. Hunting From The Trees

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148640995025/

Soonyoung knew an attack from the ground would be really obvious. It was also easier to get caught on the ground. Thus he followed Seokmin from the trees until the flair went off and the second test had begun. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the person hunting Soonyoung had payed enough attention to know where Soonyoung was.

So when Soonyoung’s leg was grabbed from bellow and he fell back to the ground, his noise of surprise told Seokmin that he was there. Soonyoung glared up at Chan who was trying to take the blue ribbon tied to Soonyoung’s left arm. Grabbing Chan’s arm, and watching Seokmin take off in a sprint, Soonyoung rolled over. Chan groaned in pain as his back hit the ground and Soonyoung pulled himself from the ground as quickly as he could, following Seokmin.

Soonyoung was faster than Chan; he knew as much. The terrain, too, would help. The problem with escaping was that he had to keep tabs on where Seokmin was as well. Seokmin, for his part, seemed to have gotten himself completely lost within the trees in his escape. Soonyoung caught up easily, dove behind a tree, and hoped that Chan had lost sight of him.

Seokmin spun around in place for a moment, panicked and out of breath. Soonyoung moved, as quietly as he could, around the right side. Seokmins’ red ribbon loose around his right arm. Seokmin turned back the direction he had been going, heaving a sigh of what was probably relief. Soonyoung could help but smile. Relief meant he wasn’t as on guard as he should be.

Soonyoung jumped out, quick strides in attempt to get closer before Seokmin could fully realize what was happening. The ribbon was too loose, came away from Seokmins’ arm when Soonyoung grabbed it and pulled it down Seokmins’ arm.

“No!” Seokmin gasped, horror falling onto his face briefly. It was replaced with a defeated frown.

“Sorry.” Soonyoung grinned despite the apology.

_“First elimination, Lee Seokmin.”_

“Oh, they’re announcing them,” Soonyoung muttered, wrapping the red ribbon around his wrist. “Who’s your target?”

“Mingyu,” Seokmin said, frown slowly disappearing from his face. “I don’t suppose you need any help?”

“You want to?”

“I was the first one out. I’ll have nothing to do!” Seokmin mocked horror and Soonyoung laughed, nodding.

“Good point. Let’s go then, I want to put some extra distance between myself and here, first. Make sure Chan doesn’t catch up.”

 

Seokmin and Soonyoung realize they’re not making much progress when more announcements ring out and they still haven’t seen anyone else, let alone Mingyu. How big could training grounds be?

Soonyoung sighs, mentally notes who’s been eliminated. Seungkwan, Jisoo, Minghao, Junhui. Soonyoung had the luck of knowing who was targeting him. If he assumes the targets are a full loop, then he can assume Chan isn’t Mingyu’s target, since then Soonyoung would end up with himself as his own target. That’s one less person that would help lead him to Mingyu, then. At least if they managed to find someone else there was a chance Mingyu wasn’t far behind.

“Alright,” Soonyoung sighs, “It’s probably not Wonwoo, if Seungcheol wasn’t lying. So Seungcheol, Jihoon, Jeonghan, and Hansol? That’s it isn’t it?”

“I think so,” Seokmin shrugs. Soonyoung wants to say that isn’t any help, but listing names always risks forgetting someone and Soonyoung himself had trouble with that.

_“Sixth elimination, Jeon Wonwoo.”_

“I was going to say that narrowed it further, until I remembered we already excluded Wonwoo,” Seokmin admitted.

“If it makes you feel better, so was I.” Soonyoung sighed.

There just weren’t any signs of people having been around. The training grounds were all trees and dirt, but they were large enough to get lost in and dense enough to make finding someone in them hard.

 

More searching, still no luck. Soonyoung sighs, exasperated. How far had they walked? Could they possibly just be walking in circles around Mingyu? Seokmin echoed the sigh and they shared a look of exhaustion. Soonyoung had energy for days, but the monotonous sound of their footsteps against the dirt for minutes on end was starting to get to him.

“Someone else get eliminated already at least!” Soonyoung shouted, caution thrown to the wind. At least if Chan found him he’d have something to do.

_“Seventh elimination, Lee Chan.”_

“Alright I wasn’t serious.” Soonyoung frowned. That means he didn’t know who was targeting him now, which led anxiety to creep up. Anyone could be after him now. “Could have been anyone else.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“It means I don’t know who’s after me anymore.”

“Ah, right.”

It isn’t but a few second later they find Mingyu. Mingyu is in a tree. Mingyu is stuck in a tree. Soonyoung and Seokmin don’t even bother to hide themselves nor their shock. He stares down at them, somewhere between shock and maybe a little sickness. Being upside down tended to make you not feel well.

“What even happened?” Seokmin laughs, Mingyu frowns.

“Hansol got away.”

“Clearly.” Soonyoung can’t help but laugh too. “You wouldn’t have happened to see Seungcheol from up there?”

“Why?”

“He was my target,” Seokmin lies, following Soonyoung’s lead. It’s not the most convincing lie Soonyoung has ever heard someone utter, but it’s the best they got. “Which would mean, does mean, now he’s Soonyoungs’.”

“I haven’t.”

“Would you like help?” Soonyoung offers. Mingyu nods. His genuinely distressed expression doesn’t get any less distressed while Seokmin and Soonyoung try to help him from the tree without hurting him or themselves. Mingyu is on his feet, sighing in relief from finally being back on solid ground, when Soonyoung rips the black ribbon tied to his arm away.

“Hey!”

“Who said I couldn’t use strategy.” Soonyoung grinned, waving the ribbon around.

“Oh,” Mingyu mutters, frowning. “Oh, I get it.”

“Sorry.”

_“Eighth elimination, Kim Mingyu.”_

“So,” Soonyoung ties the ribbon around his wrist with the red one he took from Seokmin. Now he’s got one of each colour, he grins. “Hansol then?”

“Yep.”

 

Mingyu goes with them. Soonyoung has a general direction this time, at least, Mingyu having seen what was Hansol went as he escaped. That had, apparently, been not but a few minutes before so the group had rushed in that direction before slowing back to a walk. A walk that was equally as boring as the former one. None of them had conversation topics, too focused on being on the lookout for Hansol.

_“Ninth elimination, Yoon Jeonghan.”_

“One more elimination left,” Mingyu notes.

“Let’s see if we can make that Hansol, then,” Soonyoung adds.

There’s a startled noise, accidental by all odds, and Soonyoung finds Hansol looking down at them from the trees. Strategy thief. Soonyoung knows that isn’t true, but he does think it.

No one moves, Hansol glances around the group of three, and then turns to jump to another tree.

“No you don’t!” Soonyoung shouts, following. He mutters an apology when he uses Mingyu to get into the tree faster and follow Hansol.

“You’re both going to hurt yourselves!” Seokmin shout goes ignored. Soonyoung can hear Mingyu and Seokmin following from the ground, but focuses on Hansol.

Jumping between trees isn’t the safest thing in the world, takes more carefulness than you want in a chase, and means that if he’s a little reckless Soonyoung can catch up. So he throws caution to the wind, and jumps at Hansol.

They both fall, to no ones surprise. Except maybe Seokmin and Mingyu’s as they both shout in varying degrees of startled. Hansol himself shouts, in surprise and maybe pain. Though they aren’t actually that high up, and Soonyoung himself is fine from the fall, Soonyoung feels a little bad. Even as he rips the black ribbon away while Hansol his busy dealing with having the wind knocked out of him.

“Sorry.” Soonyoung actually does feel bad, even as he adds the ribbon to his wrist with the others.

“Yeah?” Hansol breathes, clearly still recovering from how he landed.

“If your in that much pain yeah.”

“Just can’t breathe.” Hansol takes a few deep breathes to emphasize his point and to regain his breath.

_“Tenth elimination, Choi Hansol. The second test is now over, please return the the school.”_

Soonyoung returns to the school alongside the other three. Though they’re told to get rest until the next day when teams will be announced, Soonyoung is still full of energy. At least he thinks he is, until he’s lying down and suddenly realizes how tired he feels. All his excitement he’d built up from the day before alongside all the running and walking took more a toll than he’d realized. With thoughts about who his teammates could end up being, Soonyoung closes his eyes and drifts to sleep.


	5. Lies And Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148690391030/

Thirteen students- first years at the hunters academy- stand in a grand hall as their professors for the year and their headmaster stand on a stage in front them. Soonyoung glances around at everyone. Expressions are mixed between excitement, or worry and anxiety. Their headmaster clears her throat, drawing everyone’s attention and quieting the idle chatter filling the hall.

“Students,” She begins, looking over the room. “You’ve come to my school to learn how to slay monsters. To become hunters. For what reason? Only you and anyone you trust may know. In the coming years, you’ll work alongside a team. Your fears, your strength, your weakness, your dreams. If you can’t trust these to your team, and be trusted with theirs, the following years will be more difficult for you than any monster. We’ve chosen your teams based on many factors, but it’s up to you to make these teams a functioning unit. Now, how about I announce your teams?”

Her speech finished, the headmaster steps back and makes room on the stage for the students she’ll call up. Jihoon is caught up in thinking about her words still, while the first team is called up.

“Choi Hansol, Choi Seungcheol, Jeon Wonwoo, Kim Mingyu. If you’d join me up here,” She motions to the stage and said students find their way past everyone and up there. Standing in a line, they share looks between them until she speaks again. “From now on, you’ll be a team and your leader will be Seungcheol.”

Seungcheol blinks, surprised, before turning his head to the others. They’re expressions are all different, but they echo congrats at him. In the back of his mind Seungcheol can hear clapping and register himself walking away from the stage, but he’s still processing the information. He’s the leader? He’s the leader.

“I’m the leader.”

“Yeah, looks like it,” Hansol laughs at the dumbfounded expression on Seungcheol’s face.

“It sort of makes me feel less bad about running for so long and still getting caught by you,” Wonwoo mutters.

“I don’t think I expected anything else,” Mingyu adds, smiling. “You were one of the last three, anyway.”

“Looks like at least for us the colour thing was right,” Seungcheol notes, glancing at where Soonyoung and Jihoon both stand.

“Colour thing?” Mingyu asks, gaining Seungcheol’s attention again.

“We all had black ribbons.”

“Oh,” Wonwoo nods. “I guess your right.”

“Only us?” Hansol asks, humming like he’s trying to remember.

“Yep.”

“The next team,” Their headmaster speaks again. “Our larger team: Boo Seungkwan, Hong Jisoo, Lee Jihoon, Lee Seokmin, Yoon Jeonghan. Please step forward.”

They do, lining up in an order that put Jihoon furthest from the rest of the students. Though he’d like to pretend he doesn’t notice, Seokmin sends him a glance of worry because he’s hidden by the others- slightly- larger statures. He returns a frown of annoyance and Seokmin turns away from him and to the headmaster.

“From this day forward you will be a team, lead by Lee Jihoon.”

Jihoon nods, bows and makes his way off stage alongside the others. Pride rests in his chest, though he had sort of expected as much. No offense meant to his other teammates, but they clearly lacked the experience he had in fights. Still, they were his teammates now, so he’d help them learn.

“I should have expected as much.” Seungkwan sighs.

“I did expect as much,” Seokmin chimes, sounding proud of himself.

“Not like we could argue,” Jeonghan mutters, and Jihoon raises an eyebrow at him. “Not that I don’t think your suited.”

“Sure,” Jihoon shrugs. “You okay with this, Jisoo?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? The professors should know what they’re doing.”

“Should,” Jihoon repeats and Jisoo laughs nervously instead of coming up with an excuse for the word.

“And our final team. I’m sure I don’t need to call you by name.” The last four student’s make their way onto the stage. Soonyoung doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, but he can’t help but feel confident he’ll be made their leader based on everything so far. “Kwon Soonyoung, Lee Chan, Wen Junhui, Xu Minghao. You’ll be out final team, lead by Kwon Soonyoung.”

Soonyoung grins. He’s the leader. There are worries threatening to work their way into his mind. About leading, about if he can actually manage it. But for the moment he pushes them aside to focus on feeling happy about it.

“Congrats.” Chan laughs when Soonyoung cheers. “I sort of saw this coming though.”

“Didn’t we all? He was one of the last three.” Minghao’s comment is given with a roll of his eyes that isn’t totally serious.

“Yeah, but we can still be happy for him.” Junhui throws an arm over Minghao’s shoulders, who mock-glares in return.

“Thanks guys.” Soonyoung hums. The last comments from their headmaster to all of the students goes unnoticed by Soonyoung until she’s leaving and his teammates are looking to him in wait. “What?”

“We’re getting actual dorms now.”

“Oh, right, okay.”

 

There are dorms set up for each team to live in. Because there are more of them, Jihoon’s teams dorm is a little larger than the other dorms, having an extra bed and a little extra space.

Jihoon watches his team as they decide on beds. There are two sets of bunk-beds and one regular bed. The regular bed is the one that Jeonghan claims by dropping himself onto it a glaring as if to challenge them to argue. Jihoon doesn’t really care, all the beds are the same other than where they are or if they’re above another. So he drops his stuff onto one of the lower beds and observes as the others decide on their own.

Seungkwan practically jumps into one of the top beds- the one not above Jihoon- with a shout that says it’s his. Jisoo just laughs at him and asks Seokmin which he wants. Then Seokmin shakes his head and asks Jisoo which he wants. Jihoon laughs at them and flips a coin.

“Hey, Seokmin, head or tails?”

“Heads?”

“If you want to go by this, you’ve just earned yourself the bunk under Seungkwan’s.”

“Oh, Okay I’m fine with that. Jisoo?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Coin flips,” Jeonghan sighs, “The age old way to decide things.”

“Does that means Seokmin won or not?” Seungkwan mutters, looking over the railing of his own bed.

“He lost.” Jihoon shakes his head. With a sigh, he stands and makes his way to close the door to their dorm and face his team. His team. Who he’ll be stuck with for the next few years. “I have a question for you guys, actually.”

“Shoot.” Seungkwan sits up- luckily their beds leave lots of head room. Jisoo and Jeonghan both face him as well.

“How’d you fake your way into a school for hunters?”

There’s silence. Horror passes Seungkwans’ face. Guilt forms on Jisoo’s. Jeonghan just looks shocked. Seokmin looks anxious. If Jihoon wasn’t sure before, their expressions make him sure.

“We didn’t?” Jeonghan is the first to pull himself together, and Jihoon sighs.

“I know you guys did. I’m not reporting you. I’m not asking you to leave. But I’m going to be leading you, I need to know what you can actually do. Not just what transcripts say.”

“You’re not going to report me?” Seungkwan asks, before shaking his head. “Or, us, I guess.”

“No,” Jihoon sighs again, shaking his head. “You guys know hunters school’s don’t play games? There are real chances for you to die here. Putting your life in danger is your choice but at least let me try to keep you alive. Trust me.”

“You have to trust your team if you don’t want the following years to be more difficult. Right? That’s what we were told.” Jisoo sighs, shifting from where he sits. “I got ahold of some fake transcripts. All I had to do was replace important information with my own.”

“I stole transcripts and did basically that, too.” Jeonghan shrugs, still tense from worry.

“I bought fake transcripts,” Seokmin adds.

“I made mine.”

“Did you guys know you’d all faked your way in?” Jihoon asks, folding his arms.

“Nope,” Seungkwan shrugs. “I had no idea anyone else had until, well, just now.”

“Literally everyone else did. Well, except Seungcheol and Soonyoung, probably.”

“Probably?”

“They certainly seem like they went to combat school.”

“I can’t believe an entire year of student’s lied their ways in!” Jeonghan laughs. “What the actual hell?”

“It is pretty ridiculous,” Jisoo adds, nodding.

“It’s more than that.” Jihoon shakes his head.

“I didn’t know that many people had reason to fake their way’s in. I mean, we all know the risks, right?” Seokmin hums. “I didn’t think anyone else would think that was worth lying about.”

“Oh it’s _plenty_ worth it,” Jeonghan says, voice tinted with an underlying bitterness.

 

“So,” Seungcheol addresses the dorm, where each of his teammates sit on their chosen beds. “Why don’t you all tell me how the last test went for you. Well, okay, Wonwoo doesn’t need to because I was there.”

While Seungcheol listens to Mingyu and Hansol explain their experiences during the test, he notes specifically what they find important to focus on. Mingyu is more worried about how he was avoided rather than his attack strategy. Hansol is focused on the mistake that lead him to falling from a tree and the pain that came with it.

“A fall like that should have been mostly taken by your Aura, though.” Seungcheol watches confusion fall over Hansol’s- and everyone else’s for that matter- faces.

“What,” Comes out more like a statement, one of confusion, than it does a question. Mingyu shifts and Seungcheol sighs in response. They really had no idea?

“Aura is something you should have learned about, had unlocked, in combat school,” Seungcheol sighs, glances at the door to their dorms and walks over and shuts it. “Tell me the truth here guys, did you even go to combat school?”

“Yes?” Mingyu is the only one to respond. Response coming out at as a question.

“Alright,” Seungcheol frowns, “Then what was your best class?”

No one responds. Seungcheol and anyone who had ever been to combat school can tell that they haven’t. Wonwoo may have put up a fight, but he still made careless mistakes that would have ended up giving him poor scores in combat training. Hansol may be able to fight- Seungcheol had seen as much during the first test- but it was clearly not from formal training. Which, sure, could be a good thing in some cases- formal training came with the risk of becoming predictable- but wouldn’t allow him into this school. Mingyu, Seungcheol had fought alongside just long enough to see was trying hard, but wasn’t anywhere near the level he should have been. Like a puppy being passed off as an attack dog.

“Well…” Hansol trails off, like he doesn’t have an excuse.

“Alright, everyone, listen to me a second okay?” Seungcheol steps forward, standing at the edge of the space between the bunk-beds. “I’m your leader now, right? We’re a team now, right? We need to trust each other. You need to trust me. I know trust is something people earn but until we’re actually out on the battle field or in a situation where it’s needed, I can’t earn your trust yet. So I need you to have a little faith in me.

“I’m not going to make you guys leave. You’re here, I don’t know your situations. I’m not going to take this from you. But I need to know what your capable of so when we are on the battlefield I don’t let you die because you couldn’t trust me enough to help me figure out your strengths. I don’t understand why you don’t just go to combat school, but it’s too late to dwell on that now.”

Expressions shift. Mingyu avoids his eyes, choosing to stare at the floor. Wonwoo is looking at him, but not meeting his eyes either. Hansol meets his eyes, but looks away a second later, too. There’s a moment where Seungcheol think’s he’ll have to speak again, but Mingyu is the one to speak.

“There’s no time.”

“What?” Seungcheol blinks at Mingyu, who continues his staring match with the ground.

“There wasn’t time for combat school.” Though Mingyu finally meets Seungcheol’s eyes, it doesn’t answer any of the questions Seungcheol is mentally asking. Enough time? Seungcheol’s expression is questioning but Mingyu just shakes his head.

“Besides,” Wonwoo starts, “Combat school is expensive.”

“I did attend,” Hansol admits. Though he doesn’t say anything further, Seungcheol assumes that means he never finished training there.

“I didn’t know anyone else had done the same as me and lied,” Mingyu admits. “I guess that just shows that I wasn’t trained.”

“We’ll work on it,” Seungcheol smiles. Letting them stay, letting them put their lives at risk, is dangerous. To them and to him, since they have to rely one each other. But their professors must know. There’s no way they hadn’t realized. Seungcheol wonders why they hadn’t made them all leave, even placing them on teams, but maybe they saw potential that Seungcheol hasn’t realized yet.

 

“So,” Soonyoung begins, sitting crossed legged on his new bed. “Where’d you guys get a hold of fake transcripts?”

Chan stumbles, spins around horrified at Soonyoung’s question. “How can you ask something like that as if it’s nothing?”

“Being honest with each other will help the team. Besides, I wondered if you all knew about each other.” Soonyoung shrugs, smiling.

He had been thinking about it. It was fairly obvious at the very least that Chan had no combat experience, school or not. The other two certainly didn’t have combat school training. They knew how to fight, he could see that in their matches during the first test, but the training that would make them ready to fight monsters rather than humans wasn’t there. Best to get that out in the open before they’re on the battlefield, Soonyoung figured.

“Getting fake transcripts isn’t as hard as one would think,” Junhui admits, with a worried expression and dismissive shrug.

“Really?”

“You’d be surprised,” Minghao mutters. “Especially coming from another of the kingdoms.”

“Alright. Then why did you?”

“It was the only option.” Minghao doesn’t elaborate.

“Combat school was… I couldn’t go to one,” Chan doesn’t seem to be fully truthful in his explanation, but Soonyoung accepts it. Will accept it for now.

“Trying to go to a combat school in another kingdom is harder than a hunters academy, ironically.” Junhui’s head tilts in a way that seems to be noting the end of his explanation.

Soonyoung nods. They don’t have to explain to him fully yet. They’ve just met. Trusting someone with your reasons for something so important is hard enough even if you knew them. Let alone someone who’ve you just met suddenly asking.

“Okay. I wish you could trust me enough to explain fully, but I know I haven’t earned that yet. At any rate, why don’t you tell me what you do have experience with in combat?”

“…Nothing.” Chan’s expression is worried, but Soonyoung just nods at him. “Unless you count the tests yesterday.”

“Alright.”

“I went to combat school… for a while,” Minghao says, dropping onto the bed across from Soonyoung. “Not very long though.”

“Martial arts,” Junhui adds. “I was going to go but… that didn’t happen.”

“Oh, where’d you learn that?” Chan is the one to chime in, turning his full attention to Junhui.

“I was taught?”

“…Yeah I guessed that much.”

“Oh like who taught me?”

Soonyoung laughs, Minghao makes a noise between a scoff and laugh. “Yeah.”

While that conversation continues, Soonyoung leans back against the wall and watches them, and Minghao, talk to each other. He’s not fully listening, catching bits and pieces, but he is taking note of how easily everyone interacts. That might not be a sign of how they’ll work in a fight, but having a good friendship off of the field would make working together easier. Soonyoung thinks so, at least. So he smiles. Part of him wonders if not turning them in is actually a good choice, but another part of him thinks it wouldn’t do anything. Was there really any way their professors didn’t know?

 

Their third day shows no signs of slowing down their training. Though hunter academies do have normal classrooms and set ups for lectures and classes of that sort, they aren’t using them yet. Instead their professors lead them out, pile them into vehicles and take them to another training ground. Except this one is larger, with gates and warning signs.

“We have,” Their professor draws their attention from staring wide-eyed at the ground. “Set up an area to test you against monsters. A small, but still dangerous, one will be released into the area alongside you. Find it, kill it. This will be your first challenge as teams and each team will go in separately.”

Looks are shared around amongst them. A real monster. Even small ones are incredibly dangerous.

“Though we will be watching, we wont intervene in this unless absolutely necessary.” Their professor walks to the gate of the area. “You can have a few minutes to discuss plans with your team.”

Soonyoung draw his team to him, whispering strategy and warnings.

Seungcheol motions his team to him, once they’re close enough he starts to discus what to do in any of the many bad situations he can come up with.

Jihoon’s team is already huddled around him by the time he’s looking up, plans in his mind.

Their first operation as a team; they want all want it to go well.


	6. From The Kingdom's Edge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seungkwan has seen too many monsters to be scared of the sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148716395330/

At the edge of the kingdom there’s a town with such a small number of people that outside of it most tend to forget it exists. But it’s beautiful. Water stretches the towns north border, while forest spans to the west. The skies are clear draping the grassy west area or sandy north area with colour. It’s a place Seungkwan will never regret having grown up in.

The problem lies in where it is. Kingdoms have defenses to keep monsters from getting in. These defenses aren’t perfect, which is why hunters who don’t hunt down new land from the creatures protect the kingdom. The town is barely over the border of the kingdom, though. People hardly pay it any mind and that means monsters could easily get to it if they wanted. Though the monsters usually ignore the land, people locking themselves in their houses whenever one gets too close, the threat is still there. The threat is still real.

Any day someone from the town could go outside and catch the attention of a monster and never come back. Seungkwan has seen the creatures a number of times. Growing up so close to them makes their sight hard to be afraid of. Though he fears them, fears they’ll attack, their sight alone isn’t enough to scare him anymore. As long as they don’t pay attention to him, it’s fine.

Still, Seungkwan fears them. There’s an underlying fear that one day his mother or sister will go out and a monster will take them. He doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want anyone he cares for to disappear like that. So Seungkwan decides to become a hunter. He’ll get strong and then return home to protect his town.

Seungkwan isn’t good enough.

His family doesn’t have enough money to send him to combat school and he’s not good enough to make it in on raw talent alone. Hunter academies are free, but you need to have records from combat training to get in, and Seungkwan can’t get into combat school.

Faking his way into a hunters academy and praying his luck holds out is all he can do. He lies to his mother- the first time he’s lied about anything other than stole cookies- and leaves.

Now, standing in front of a monster as his team mates around with plans and weapons, he doesn’t feel as scared as he maybe should. Seokmin screeches in shock when the monster- big and stocky, like a dog and bear fused into one and got made larger- jumps at Seungkwan.

Seungkwan dives out of the way. A bow- his weapon of choice- falls from his hands as he does. Claws- blue and smoking with unnatural energy monsters emanate- strike a tree and the creature reels back.

“Seungkwan!” Seokmin- who he was told to stay beside- rushes to him. Seungkwan shakes his head. He stands and picks his bow back up while the creature takes a step back in preparation for another attack. Seokmin makes another startled noise at how close Seungkwan and he are to the creature. “I thought this was a small one.”

“It is,” Seungkwan laughs despite the situation. “You should see the ones-”

His comment is cut off but the creature leaping at them. Seungkwan dives left while Seokmin dives right and the creature slides to a halt a few feet away. The smaller ones are weaker and dumber, but they're faster and still strong enough to kill. Seungkwan reaches for an arrow, nocking it and taking aim. Their job isn’t to kill, but to lead it into a position for the rest of their team. That’s what Jihoon had said, at least.

Seungkwan fires the arrow. It doesn’t hit anything vital, hitting the creature where its front leg meets it’s torso. It sure does upset the monster, though. The matted, purple fur that falls from it hits the ground as the creature rushes toward Seungkwan again.

Diving, Seungkwan rolls away from the creature. On his feet again, he runs back to Seokmin’s side and sighs. “I think it will chase us now.”

“I can see that!” Seokmin sighs, anxiety clearly edging it’s way to the surface. “So let’s run.”

They do. Seungkwan following Seokmin as the other leads them. The creature follows and they have to dive out of it’s way multiple times. Seungkwan has lost sight of what direction was which and where they’re going, but Seokmin hasn’t. So Seungkwan focuses on making sure they’re safe and Seokmin focuses on leading them where they need to go.

Once they’ve reached the spot they’re supposed to be, they stop. Seungkwan can see their other teammates, waiting, and the relived expressions going around. The monster catches up, and they once again dive away so it’s in position. Their jobs are done, Seungkwan sighs when the others move to do their parts. He watches before turning to share a look of victory with Seokmin. Sure, they haven’t won yet. But this was further than either of them were expected to get. They’d never even had training.

“How do you not freeze? Monsters are so terrifying.” Seokmin sighs, hand resting on his chest as he steadies his breathing.

“I grew up really close to the edge of the kingdom. Monsters were always close by so, I got used to them. They still scare me but its easier to deal with the fear, I guess.”

 

“Why do you want to be a hunter?” Jihoon had asked Seungkwan, before they’d arrived at the grounds. Seungkwan blinked, stilled for a moment, before turning away. Why did he want to be a hunter? Seungkwan sighed. You’re supposed to trust your team. You’re supposed to trust the leader of your team. And Seungkwan didn’t have anything to hide.

“There’s this town, really close to the edge of the kingdom. I grew up there, right? Well… Monsters are always close by when you’re that close the the kingdoms edge. I was always scared that one day they’d get a little closer and something would happen to me, or my mom, or my sister. I wanted to be strong enough to protect them.”

“But you came here, instead of going to combat school first?”

“I couldn’t,” Seungkwan admitted. There were the starts of tears in his eyes because suddenly he’s thinking about it again. Thinking about not being good enough to get there. Not being strong enough to make it into combat school. “We didn’t have the money for it and I wasn’t good enough to get in on skill alone. I wasn’t good enough to get into combat school, let alone here. So I lied.”

“What’s your weapon?” The question seems like a change of topic, and Seungkwan raises an eyebrow at Jihoon.

“A bow?”

“Is that a question?”

“It’s a bow.” Seungkwan frowned, slightly annoyed.

“Fighting from a distance, then?”

“I just already know how to use one. Fighting directly wouldn’t be a big deal if I knew how.”

“You’re not scared to fight monsters directly.”

“No. I see them all the time. And I’ll have to see them all the time. I just want to fight in whatever way I can, and a bow is how I can.”

“Then not getting into combat school doesn’t mean you aren’t good enough.”

“What?”

“There are plenty of people who graduate and never have the confidence to face monsters, directly or not.”

“Are you… try to compliment me?”

“No.”

“Then what is this?”

“As your leader, I should know and point out your strengths, right? No offense but I thought you’d be the type to be scared of them. But being able to face monsters is difficult even for people stronger than them. So… You have that at least.”

“…Thank you.” Seungkwan grinned. “You’re not a half-bad leader.”

“Don’t make me regret talking to you.”

“Too late.”

“…”

“Wait let me rephrase that.”

 

Seungkwan had grown up around monsters. Had seen a lot. But fighting one was something he’d never done. Some part of him wasn’t confident he could, but then Jihoon had explained the plan to their team.

“Seokmin and Seungkwan will lead it to us. Seokmin, be sure to remember where you are, don’t worry about the monster as much as paying attention to where you’re going. Seungkwan, get its attention, make it follow you, and then make sure neither of you die.”

“No pressure.”

“We can do this,” Seokmin said, grinning. Seungkwan returned the grin and gave a laugh.

“Well, yeah, of course!”

“Are they going to be okay?” Jeonghan asked, glancing at the two. “What if they freak out when they actually see it?”

“Seungkwan will be fine with that, at least.” Jihoon had nodded to himself, turning to Jeonghan and Jisoo. “Now for us…”


	7. To Support

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148723029480

The closer you are to the center of the kingdom, the safer it is. There’s more monsters have to get through in order to get anywhere near you, thus more time for hunters to deal with the problem. It’s rare that monsters make it past the edge cities and towns, but when they do they’re devastating.

When Seokmin was young, he saw a monster. Despite living further into the kingdom- though still a fair distance from the center- a monster attacked his city. Huge, with feathers that didn’t seem like they should be able to hold it up but did, came a monster disguised as a giant bird. Well, no one would mistake it. With a red energy emitting from it, the monster crushed houses and attacked people.

A large group of hunters- more than a full six person team- had shown up to take care of it. Seokmin watched from the comfort of his parents arms, as hunters lead the monster away from the city. One hunter, though, didn’t fight the monster. Instead they focused on protecting and even doctoring the injured from the monster. Seokmin was amazed.

When Seokmin was younger, he wanted to be a doctor. Wanted to help people, heal people. When Seokmin was younger, he wanted to be a police officer. Wanted to help people, protect them. When Seokmin was older, he wanted to be a hunter. Wanted to help people, protect people, heal people. There are hunters that support their teams, act in that way, and Seokmin wants to be one.

Seokmin wasn’t good enough to make it in combat school. Even the first days were too much for him. Fighting, hurting others, he couldn’t do it. Couldn’t fight when what he wanted to was learn to defend and help. Even hunters who do that are supposed to go through combat training, but hurting his fellow students never was something he wanted. So instead he faked transcripts to get into a hunters academy and hoped whatever team he ended up on would allow him to do what he was trying to.

 

“Why do you want to be a hunter?” Jihoon asked him, in the morning as they waited for their professors to show up.

“What?” Seokmin was startled by the questioning. Jihoon had been silent until then.

“If I know what you’re hoping to do, I can plan around you better.”

“Why I want to be a hunter?”

“Yeah.”

“I always wanted to help people.”

“That’s it? Didn’t you have a specific goal, to go through all this?”

“Well… When I was younger I wanted to be a doctor, then a police officer, then a hunter. You know there are hunters that act as support for their teams? But you still have to have the same training either way. I wasn’t good enough to make it here on my own.”

“Being here on your own wasn’t your goal.”

“Exactly! I never wanted to be the strongest or anything. I want to make sure others can be. Or, something like that?”

“You shouldn’t question yourself.”

“Then exactly that.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“You can ‘play support.’”

“That easily?”

“Putting someone into a fight who doesn’t want to fight isn’t going to help either of us.”

 

“Seokmin and Seungkwan will lead it to us. Seokmin, be sure to remember where you are, don’t worry about the monster as much as paying attention to where you’re going. Seungkwan, get its attention, make it follow you, and then make sure neither of you die.” Was the plan Jihoon had given to them.

Don’t worry about fighting the monster. So Seokmin doesn’t, even though he’s scared. Fear he hasn’t felt since the monster that attacked his home city, even if this one is much smaller. Seokmin has a mission, a goal, and a team. So he pays careful attention to where they are, only getting distracted by worry that Seungkwan is going to get hurt, and leads them in the right direction when the monster follows them.

Veering the the right, Seokmin pulls Seungkwan sideways suddenly. The monster slides past them, before turning to catch up. But Seokmin and Seungkwans’ job was done. Seokmin had lead them back to the place they were supposed to. Back to their team.

Though they briefly talk about Seungkwan’s surprising lack of fear at the monster, they’re mostly silent. Watching and waiting in case their team needs them.

“Do you even know how to use that?” Seungkwan motions briefly to the sword Seokmin holds.

“…Sort of? I had a little training but it’s mostly an ‘in case’ thing.”

“…Please don’t fight.”

“I’m not.”

“Seriously, I at least know how to use my weapon.”

“I’m not!” Seokmin whisper-yells, frowning.

 

“What is your weapon?” Seokmin is pretty sure Jihoon had asked everyone that question but had still managed to be caught off guard by it.

“Well…” Seokmin trailed off, only to get a annoyed look from Jihoon. “A sword.”

“…Just a sword?”

“Yes?”

“Do you know how to fight with a sword?”

“Barely.”

“Oh my god.”

“Hey! I told you fighting wasn’t exactly my main goal here!”

“But you didn’t choose a shield.”

“I have one. I’m not very good at remembering I have it but I do. Oh, should I have focused on it? That would probably make sense if I want to defend, huh.”

“Seokmin.”

“Yeah?”

“When we get the chance, let’s build you new weapons.”

“Build?!”

“We make our own weapons in combat school. Or, customize them in the case of more modern weapons like guns.”

“That’s so cool. Maybe I should have gone.”

“You wouldn’t have made it.”

“Rude.”

“But I’m right.”

“It’s still rude.”

“Listen.”

“Listening.”

“You want to support your team, right?”

“Yes!”

“So we’ll make it so that even your sword will be useful for that.”

“How do we do that?”

“Later.” Jihoon sighed, shaking his head. “Right now let’s focus on not dying on our first test as a team.”

 

Seokmin glance down at his weapon again, along with shield attached to his left arm. Seokmin had never been much for fighting. Never wanted to be either. But supporting, even if that meant some amount of fighting, that was what he wanted to do. That he could do. He was going to try, at least.


	8. Hunters And Heroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jisoo always wanted to be a hero, to be a hunter. He was just never suited for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148740456515/  
> Also, this chapter was beta'd by the lovely jeonkwon (on ao3)

Hunters are heroes. Loved, admired, and respected by all. Most children want to be a hunter at some point in their life, they dream of being heroes. Jisoo was no different. To be a hero, to be a hunter, to be like the people he admired, was always his dream.

Though they moved further into the kingdom once they had a child, Jisoo’s parents were once hunters. His parents, and their parents before them, were hunters. Heroes. Jisoo had always admired that, admired them. Wanted to be like them.

They told him, gently, that he wasn’t suited for it. He wasn’t a child anymore; should have been able to accept that but he just… couldn’t. Was all their personal sword training for nothing? Was an entire life spent waiting to be old enough to go to combat school for nothing?

It may have been a slightly irrational choice, Jisoo admits. Faking transcripts, skipping combat school completely, and entering a school for hunters. But that was what he did.

In all honesty, part of him expected to be caught. Jisoo never truly thought the professors wouldn’t figure it out- and maybe they had known- nor that he would stay there very long. There he was, though. On a team. At a hunter’s academy.

 

“Do you really want to be a hunter?” The question takes more thought than Jisoo thinks it should. He’s here, already. If he didn’t want to be a hunter, then why would he be here?

“I…” Jisoo trails off, avoiding Jihoon’s eyes. Does he want to be a hunter? “Yes.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to do good.” Hadn’t that been it? Jisoo thinks back, past just admiring his parents and hunters in general for their glory. Why had he admired them so much? If he thought about it, that was why. They did good. They helped people. That’s why people loved them. That’s why they were heroes. “Hunters were my heroes, I wanted to do good by being one.”

“There are other ways to do good. Ones that might suit you more.”

“My parents are hunters,” Jisoo sighs. “They said the same thing.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s not… I know I’m not suited for it. I was never good enough to be one. But this is what I spent my whole life waiting to do.”

 

“Now for us…” Jihoon faces Jeonghan and Jisoo. “We’ll wait until they lead the monster to us, then strike.”

“You think we can handle that?” Jisoo asks, glancing at the gated area that waits for them.

“Yes. You’ll attack from different sides, and I’ll attack from above. I chose everyone’s roles by what they’re most suited for. Cutting weapons will be our best bet for finishing it quickly. Small ones tend to be very mammal-like so cutting through shouldn’t be a problem.”

 

Jihoon said that, but Jisoo still feels nervous, anxiety clawing it’s way up while he waits. Part of him was worried about Seungkwan and Seokmin making it back, and another part of him was worried about what would happen when they did. This was their first real fight against a monster, what if he messes up? Jihoon said that he’d chosen their roles by what they were most suited for but since when was Jisoo suited for this?

Jisoo takes a deep breath to steady himself. He was here, he reminds himself, there was no backing out now. The question of if he wanted to be a hunter runs around his mind again, but he shakes it away. Even if he doesn’t know, now wasn’t the time. Clutching the hilt of his sword tighter, he presses himself back against the tree he rests on. Slaying monsters is what hunters do, now was his chance to get one step closer to being a real hunter.

The uneven sound of footsteps notes the return of Seungkwan and Seokmin. With one more deep breath, Jisoo leans around the tree to look at them, waiting. A second passes, tense for all of them, before the monster jumps into view and the two dive out of its way. Barely a moment passes before Jeonghan jumps out at the creature and Jisoo mentally curses himself for hesitating before following suit.

Though the weapon can be wielded one handed, Jisoo had always been trained with two-handed weapons. So both hands clutch the hilt of his sword and he swings with a practiced motion at the creature’s legs. The blows from both himself and Jeonghan do some damage, causing the creature to back up, but it wasn’t enough.

The monster reels back, lifting its front legs to attack them. While Jeonghan’s instinct was to jump back, Jisoo panicks. He lifts- rather, swings- at the leg closest to him. It was pure luck, Jisoo knows, that the blade found way into the spot between its front leg and torso. Though its weight still outclasses Jisoo’s own strength, pushing him to the ground under it with just enough space to breath, the monster definitely seems hurt, at the very least.

Jisoo exhales again, trying to keep his breathing from becoming uneven. Making the choice to let go of the sword that was now stuck in the creature, he rolls and pushes himself out from under it. Stumbling, he makes his way around a tree, putting something between them, then hears Jeonghan attacking again.

“That didn’t go as planned, did it?” Jisoo blinks at Seokmin, who stands a few feet away. Seungkwan makes a noise of agreement from his other side and Jisoo almost laughs.

“That was a little out of realm of the plan, yeah.” Jisoo sighs, glancing back at the creature and his weapon stuck in it. “Hey Seokmin, how much do you need your sword?”

“He doesn’t even know how to use it,” Seungkwan mutters. Seokmin doesn’t respond to that, but does frown.

“Honestly, the shield is probably of more use to me.”

“So, can I borrow your sword?”

“Isn’t it heavier than yours?” Seungkwan asks, a reminder of the fact.

“Yes, probably.”

“Don’t get yourself hurt,” Seokmin says as he hands over the sword. “And don’t break it, it’s all I’ve got.”

“Promise.” Jisoo nods. Testing the weight, Jisoo grips the hilt of the sword before looking back to the monster. Waiting for a chance to attack that won’t get in Jeonghan’s way, or hurt but the both of them.

_‘Do you really want to be a hunter?’_

Jisoo nods to himself. He’s scared, the whole thing is scary. But he really does want to be a hunter, fighting monsters is something he wants to do. It helps that his teammates were in similar positions- with sneaking in, and all- as he was. They were all on equal footing, so he doesn’t feel like he is going to hold them back by not being suited for the role.

Jisoo wants to be a hunter. He’s going to be a hunter. He’s suited for this part of the plan. He’s going to do what he’s supposed to.

And, hopefully, get his weapon back at some point.


	9. Reasons And Strength

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeonghan wants to be a hunter. He doesn't need to be protected from that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148741622220  
> Also, this chapter was beta'd by the lovely jeonkwon (on ao3)

There are some things you learn from a very young age. For Jeonghan, one of those things was how people would treat him. Being from a well-off family, who owned a company selling weapon parts to hunters, strangers tried to get on his good side. That wasn’t so hard to deal with, though it caused a hard-to-break distrust to be his default with people. What was harder to deal with, was his family themselves.

Because Jeonghan wanted to be able to protect himself, they allowed him to train in basic combat and even learn to use a sword. They were proud of him, of his ability to excel in the lessons. Then Jeonghan decided he wanted to be a hunter.

Hunters live dangerous lives, they said. Hunters aren’t safe, they said. He can’t be a hunter, they said. He isn’t strong enough, they said. Jeonghan took in every word and, instead of becoming disheartened, he became bitter. What did they know? If he could deal with his lessons, why couldn’t he learn from a combat school? Why couldn’t he, one day, become a hunter?

Because he was the son of an ‘important’ family and needed to be protected, they thought.

Jeonghan couldn’t get into combat school. His parents knew of his goal, and contacted the headmasters to make sure he couldn’t. His only option, then, was to skip it. There was no way he was just going to give up. Some fake transcripts later, and there he was.

 

“What made you fake your way here? You could have made it into combat school on talent alone.”

“Ha,” Jeonghan laughs at Jihoon’s question, shaking his head. “I could if they would let me.”

“But you’re here?”

“People like me aren’t suited for fights, they told me that a lot. Hunters are powerful warriors and I was someone who was meant to be protected.” Jeonghan sighs, glaring at the wall like it will somehow help. “It’s stupid. The whole thing is stupid.”

“So you came here, instead.”

“So I came here. Figured if I became a hunter, they’d stop treating me like I’d break despite how strong I’ve been so far.”

“Then, why did you want to be a hunter?”

“Why?” Jeonghan hums. “Lots of reasons. I don’t think- later, maybe?”

“Later then.”

 

Jeonghan wasn’t going in blind. He knew the risks of being a hunter. Knew as well, that his lack of combat school training could be a problem. So he did research; found as much information about combat school lessons as he could before he ever came to the hunter’s academy.

Figuring that prioviding the extent of his abilities would help their leader place him in plans, Jeonghan tells Jihoon everything he knows. Jeonghan has very little control over it, but he knows about his own aura. He has very little experience in real fights, but he’s had training with a short sword for years. Jeonghan has never seen a monster, but promises he won’t hesitate when he does.

Jeonghan has never seen a monster, but Jihoon puts him directly against one, alongside Jisoo.

While Seungkwan and Seokmin dive out of the way of said monster, Jeonghan dives forward. Strikes the monster’s front leg, only to end up giving little effect. Neither Jisoo’s, nor his own, attacks seem to do more than create irritation, rather than harmful wounds, to the creature.

When the monster reels back, ready to bring itself down at them, Jeonghan stumbles back. Instinct and training- never fight if you don’t think you can win- cause him to back up. Jisoo doesn’t. Jeonghan watches, horrified as his teammate falls to the ground beneath the beast. Though Jisoo manages to crawl out from under it, Jeonghan still doesn’t feel relief.

“Jeonghan, its neck!” Jihoon’s shout comes from above. Jeonghan blinks, looks back to the creature which is looking away from him. It’s following the retreating sight of Jisoo; has completely forgotten Jeonghan is there. So he does as he’s told and makes a quick strike for the creature’s neck.

Monsters aren’t like animals, or any living thing for that matter. They can take more damage while also not realizing when they take too much. They don’t have an aura, meaning they can’t shield themselves beyond their natural composition. And they can survive being stabbed in the neck. At least once.

Jeonghan hurriedly pulls away from the creature, maintaining a hold on his sword. It doesn’t bleed, but there’s clearly damage when it turns to him and growls.

 

_“Why do you want to be a hunter?”_

When Jeonghan thinks about the question, he doesn’t really know the answer. Maybe going into something so dangerous without knowing why wasn’t a great idea. Maybe he’s setting himself up for failure all because he was angry. But he wanted to be a hunter long before anyone told him he couldn’t be.

Jeonghan strikes again, at the creature’s leg. Jisoo returns to battle, Seokmin’s sword in hand. Avoiding the monster’s attacks and attacking is mostly instinct and practiced motions. Part of him wants to laugh when he realizes something.

It’s fun. Not fighting for his life, not knowing he or one of his teammates could get hurt. But doing something that he actually wants to do. Training had been fun, because he’d asked to do that. This was fun, because he’d chosen to do this.

Jeonghan strikes again at its leg, moves past it when it reels back again to stand beside Jisoo. Jisoo looks at him in question, but he shakes his head and looks up to where he knows Jihoon is.

“Neither of us are taking out either of its legs on our own.”

“So we should attack the same one?” Jisoo asks, though his tone says he already knows the answer.

“That’s what I was thinking.”

A paw, claws and fur, comes at them. They move in different directions away from it, then turn back around. A strike. Jeonghan stabs, into the middle of the side of the creature’s leg. Jisoo follow his lead, his strike landing higher than Jeonghan’s. The creature’s other front leg moves to hit them, only to move away when hit by an arrow. They pull, Jeonghan up, Jisoo down, and suddenly the creature is missing one of its legs. He doesn’t look at it, even as it fades into a strange purple dust. Monsters are strange.

It cries out and Jeonghan almost feels bad. Still, it _was_ trying to kill them, so he doesn’t feel so terrible about it. Jisoo tosses away Seokmin’s sword in its owner’s direction. Jeonghan swings at the creature’s other leg, giving Jisoo the chance to take back his own weapon.

With only one front leg to rest on, which was being attacked, the creature falls forward. It’s remaining front leg- its left- moves forward to try and lift it back up.

“Keep it there!” Jihoon shouts. Jeonghan nods, taking a cautious step closer to the creature’s face to keep it from moving its leg any closer. Jisoo goes for the leg itself.

They’re… winning, Jeonghan realizes. He steps back when the creature tries to bite at him, but still. They’re not dying, they’re not even that hurt. Sure it’s a small monster, not nearly as much of a threat as things they’ll later face, but it’s something. It’s more than the faith anyone ever had in him and what he could manage.

“You know,” Jeonghan says, while backing up again. “We’re all actually not a bad team.”

“We’re good, even!” Seungkwan calls from somewhere in the trees.

“You guys are doing great.” Seokmin’s voice is even further.

“Who would have guessed?” Jisoo offers a brief smile before returning to his struggle with the other leg.

There are things you learn from a young age. But it took Jeonghan until he was actually fighting a monster to really know why he wants to be a hunter. Maybe time will give him a better answer, maybe the quality of the reason doesn’t really matter. Either way, Jeonghan wants to be a hunter. Is going to be a hunter. This is going to be the start.


	10. Why A Hunter?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumlbr version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148770485125  
> beta read by jeonkwan (on ao3)

Jihoon prided himself on his ability to think his way through situations and create strategies. Being the thing he was best at, Jihoon focused a lot of his attention on this strength. As a leader, too, he had to make sure his team came out of any situation all in one piece.

“Why do you want to be a hunter?” Jihoon had asked all of them before they were sent to fight their first monster. It was a simple question, really, but it gave a lot of insight into how they would act, how they thought. Though he could only learn so much from that particular question, and asking of their choices in weaponry, it was still more than he had known before.

Seungkwan wasn’t scared of monsters, not in a way that would make him hesitate in battle. Seokmin wanted to support his team rather than fight monsters directly. Jisoo wanted to be a hero, but didn’t have confidence in himself. Jeonghan wanted to be a hunter to prove himself to other people.

Jihoon built his plan around them. Seungkwan’s lack of fear made it obvious that he should be the one luring the creature. Seokmin may be scared, but he would do what he had to, to provide support to his team, making him the best choice to lead the two back. Jeonghan was the most experienced fighter- Jihoon aside. Jisoo knew how to use his weapon and fighting in that way would be good for his confidence.

Thinking ahead, beyond this monster and day, Jihoon made his plans. They worked, too. Jihoon had faith in himself, but still felt relived when things went as planned. Sure, he’d needed to shout orders at them a few times, but for the most part they managed to do everything without his help.

The only thing they hadn’t yet managed was to actually kill the monster.

 

In the world, there exist crystals. These crystals- aptly named, well, Crystals- held powers humans couldn’t posses without them. Though Aura gives some strange abilities, Crystals don’t require any real talent to use in their most basic form.

Humans use Crystals in both their natural form and by grinding them up into powder and mixing them in other raw materials. Adding them to weapons to make the weapons stronger, or add an effect. In Jihoon’s case, he chose his weapon to use them without relying on them.

He wanted to fight from a distance but bows required strength and time to use, more so than guns. So handguns were the choice he made. Barrels were strengthened to be able to handle the new bullets being used, and it was the only real change between them and normal guns. Their downside was noise, but with the types of Crystals he chose, sound was already an issue.

Powered Crystals mixed with gunpowder in his bullets made them into- for lack of a better term- magic bullets. But Jihoon won’t call them that because it doesn’t sound as cool as ‘Crystal-embedded handgun rounds’. Even if the latter took too much time to say.

 

Jihoon takes aim with one of the guns- a .22 caliber currently holding pink Crystal bullets- and waits for a clear shot that will do the damage he needs.

“Jeonghan, Jisoo, get away from it.” Jihoon’s words get immediate action. Both Jeonghan and Jisoo put distance between themselves and the fallen monster as soon as they register the words. With them at a distance that Jihoon is sure will keep them safe, he fires.

There’s a small explosion at the point of impact, the monster’s neck, which was the same spot Jeonghan had injured earlier. For good measure, Jihoon fires two more times before lifting his weapon’s barrel skyward. Once the smoke clears, he sees that the creature is still alive- not that Jihoon is surprised- but it is, however, more injured. Likely, it would have taken the rounds with less damage, had it not already been hurt, hence why Jihoon had the others attack first. That was one reason, at least.

“It’s neck again!” Jihoon shouts once he’s sure the others can see it again. With the weakened area, Jihoon is sure that Jeonghan or Jisoo could behead it, effectively killing it. It does come as a surprise to Jihoon when Jisoo is the one to move forward first.

Jisoo raises his sword and takes a full step forward before Jihoon realizes where the creature’s attention is. Usually monsters at this level of intelligence just attack whatever has most recently hit it. That had been the case the entire fight thus far, too. But it wasn’t paying attention to him. It was still paying attention to Jisoo and Jeonghan. Had it not realized where it’d been attacked from?

“Wait, duck!” Jihoon shouts, again, then takes aim, ready to fire at the clawed limb the creature is aiming for Jisoo. Jisoo does duck, but instead of Jihoon shooting again, an arrow from Seungkwan hits it, followed by Jisoo following his motion through and stabbing the beasts torso rather than its neck.

“I missed.” It’s such a simple statement, but Jihoon is in awe at how Jisoo managed it in this situation.

“Seokmin, help me.” Seungkwan is the one speaking, running around to another side of the monster and taking aim at it again. Seokmin follows him, unsure of what he’s actually doing. Jihoon realizes though, and lowers his weapon, jumping down from the tree he’s in. Seungkwan fires an arrow, getting the creatures attention again. “Um… how are you?”

“Are we talking to it?!” Seokmin’s voice raises at least three octaves, and Seungkwan offers a nervous shrug in response.

“Jeonghan,” Jihoon says as he land next to the other. Jeonghan nods, apparently understanding, and rushes toward the beast, aiming for its wounded neck. Jisoo releases his sword- leaving it embedded once again in the monster- and gets out of the way by the time Jeonghan reaches it.

The next strike is the fatal one. With the creature distracted, and all of the damage that’s already been inflicted, it’s easy for Jeonghan to remove its head. Said head, and the rest of its body, dissipates into powder as monsters do when killed. The purple dust that remains is the only thing that makes the fact that they won, easier to process.

“We did it,” Jihoon whispers, amazed.

“We did it!” Seungkwan cheers, throwing an arm over Seokmin’s shoulders and moving them both towards the others.

“Whoa,” Seokmin mutters, disbelief covering his features. His disbelief fades in a few second though, being replaced with excitement. “Yeah, we did it!”

“That was quite possibly the most exciting thing I’ve ever done,” Jisoo laughs. “I think I’m running on adrenaline.”

“I can’t believe it. This is real, right?” Jeonghan laughs. “We killed a monster.”

“Is everyone okay?” Jihoon asks. Everyone’s collecting themselves- or weapon, in Jisoo’s case- with varying levels of happiness and exhaustion.

“Bruised, but fine.” Jisoo nods, sheathing his sword.

“I killed it. I feel great.” Jeonghan sighs, breaths evening out despite the fact he hadn’t realized they were uneven to begin with.

“I’m fine,” Seokmin confirms with a nod.

“Are you kidding? I feel like running a marathon!” Seungkwan throws his arms up, Seokmin follows his lead with a shout of ‘yeah’ that gets Jisoo to laugh. Jeonghan shakes his head at them, but is laughing a second later.

They’d done it. Jihoon exhales, relief flooding him at the same time as exhaustion. They’d really done it.

“Let’s go back, then. The other teams have to do this too, you know.”

“Aren’t you happy?” Seokmin frowns at Jihoon.

“Of course,” Jihoon huffs, glaring in mock-annoyance. It doesn’t last long, a smile working its way onto his face. “We did it, didn’t we?”

“Yeah.”

“We slayed a monster!” Jihoon shouts, suddenly. Everyone looks surprised a for a moment, but it quickly fades. “So let’s go back and rest, and let the other teams deal with this because we don’t have to now. We did it. Our first monster, gone.”

 

When they return, their professors congratulate them briefly, but it’s the other teams that are enthusiastic about it.

Hansol, Chan, and Soonyoung trade high-fives with Seungkwan and Seokmin, cheering for their victory. Seungcheol, Wonwoo, Mingyu, Jun, and Minghao crowd around Jeonghan and Jisoo with congrats and comments on their actions. Jihoon drops himself onto the ground with a smile.

“Good job, Jihoon,” Soonyoung praises, dropping down near him with a grin.

“Thanks.”

“How’s being a leader?” Seungcheol plops down next to Soonyoung, effectively creating a triangle.

“You’re one too.”

“Haven’t had the chance to act like one yet, though.”

“Stressful. It was pretty great when we actually managed it, though.”

“You did really well, I was surprised.” Soonyoung hold his hands up in defense when Jihoon glares. “You know why I meant- or what I meant. Grammar.”

“I know ‘what you meant’ yeah.” Jihoon shakes his head. “How’s the view from here, anyway?”

“You miss a lot, they only have so many cameras set up in there. But we saw the important parts.”

“Which of you is next?”

“That would be Soonyoung,” Seungcheol motions to Soonyoung, whose grin falls.

“Yeah.”

“Worried?”

“Of course I am. I’m responsible for not getting them killed, after all.”

“You’ll be fine.” Jihoon pats him on the shoulder in an attempt at comfort.

“Have faith in yourself, and them.” Seungcheol does the same to Soonyoung’s other shoulder.

 

While Soonyoung and his team make their way into the gated area, off to face their own monster, Jihoon sighs. Rather than sit in the make-shift viewing area or view its screens, Jihoon looks up at the sky and lays on the ground.

_‘Why do you want to be a hunter?’_

Jihoon had asked his team, getting different answer from each of them. To prove themselves, to protect others, because it was their dream. Jihoon wanted to create, to make something, give ideas that would make the kingdoms safer. Being a hunter was the most effective way to get people to listen to him, he told himself. But that would, eventually, mean he’d stop doing actual ‘hunter things’. One day, he’d stop hunting monsters, leave his team behind, and do what he wanted.

So, did he actually want to be a hunter? Jihoon sighs, closes his eyes, and frowns. There were other ways- safer ways- to go about what he wanted. So why had he chosen this path? His entire team had give him answers for themselves.

 _“Monsters are always close by when you’re that close the the kingdoms edge. I was always scared that one day, they’d get a little closer and something would happen to me, or my mom, or my sister. I wanted to be strong enough to protect them.”_ Seungkwan.

 _“When I was younger, I wanted to be a doctor, then a police officer, then a hunter. You know there are hunters that act as support for their teams? But you still have to have the same training either way. I wasn’t good enough to make it here on my own.”_ Seokmin.

 _“Figured if I became a hunter, they’d stop treating me like I’d break despite how strong I’ve been so far.”_ Jeonghan.

 _“Hunters were my heroes, I wanted to do good by being one.”_ Jisoo.

It made him wonder, what would he have said if one of them had asked?

“Jihoon?” Seungcheol is looking down at him when Jihoon opens his eyes. “Aren’t you going to see how Soonyoung’s team does? Or are you falling asleep with the rest of your team?”

“The rest of them?” Jihoon sits up to find his teammates really had fallen asleep.

Jeonghan lays on the ground, arms creating a makeshift pillow to keep his face from being in the dirt. Jisoo is laying on his back, arms resting over his torso. Seokmin is sprawled out in a way that doesn’t looked comfortable at all, and Seungkwan looks like he’d attempted to lay himself over all of them, then got rolled a few feet away from the rest.

Jihoon smiles, shakings his head. “I might as well, right?”

“Guess so.”

“Wake us if something important happens.”

“No promises.” Seungcheol nods in contrast to his words, before making his way back to watch what’s happening with the other team. Jihoon, in turn, drags himself over to where the rest of his team is before closing his eyes again.

He could worry about other things later. For now, he was the leader of a team, was in a hunter’s academy, and was really tired.


	11. (Not) Following Footsteps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui's family wanted him to be a hunter, they just didn't weren't okay with how he wanted to become one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumbler Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148790197670  
> Once again, Jeonkwan (on ao3) beta read this for me.

Of the kingdoms that exist in the world, the Northern Kingdom is the one known for having the most, and best, hunters. Though the best known academy- where some of the best hunters come from- exists in the Eastern Kingdom, most hunters that are well renowned end up in the Northern Kingdom.

Junhui’s parents were born in the Northern Kingdom. They’d even been trained there, yet maintained a position as some of the best hunters of their generation. It was only natural that Junhui wanted to be like them. Junhui wanted to be a hunter growing up, and that hadn’t changed as he got older.

What had changed was _how_. His parents hoped he would attend the academy they had, and expressed the idea many times. However, Junhui didn’t want that. He would have felt like he was just riding on his parents success- they’re renown among other hunters- if he had gone to the same academy as them. They didn’t get it, though. Their continued insistence for him to attend the same hunter’s academy as they did made Junhui snap.

He hadn’t meant to. Junhui really hadn’t intended to be so rude in his dismissal of the idea- apologized for it, even- but the damage was done.

Getting into combat school in another kingdom was near impossible, due to combat schools in different regions wanting to only train their own citizens. Though it never made sense to Junhui that combat schools act in such a way while hunter’s academies allow student from other kingdoms, it was something he knew. So when his parents made it impossible to attend combat school in his own kingdom, he did the only thing he could think to do. Being a hunter was all he’d ever wanted to be, so he faked transcripts to get into a hunter’s academy in the kingdom south-east of his own. The Eastern Kingdom.

 

“Alright, tell your leader something,” Soonyoung says, as he pulls Junhui aside. The rest of their team is watching Jihoon’s team fighting their monster.

“You could say ‘tell me’ you know?”

“Junhui.”

“Okay, what?”

“What’s your weapon?”

“Oh,” Junhui nods, reaching into the bag he’s carrying and pulling out a string of knives. It’s actually a belt, repurposed to hold the knives until he needs them. “Throwing knives.”

Soonyoung pauses, glancing at the weapons. “You wouldn’t even need to throw them. You could just swing that thing around.”

“Throwing is more effective.” Junhui laughs.

“So you’re good with them?”

“I can use my own weapons, yes.”

“Okay.” There’s a pause, where it looks like Soonyoung wants to ask something else.

“Is that it?”

“Why-” Soonyoung glances at their professors, remembers not to outright say Junhui had lied, “-come here?”

“Why?” Junhui frowns. “My family wanted me to be a hunter like them. Just like them. I wanted to go here eventually, so they wouldn’t let me go to combat school. Figured that doing so would make me change my mind about this place, I guess.”

“Didn’t do much, then.”

“Right. I wasn’t going to just do what they wanted and because of that, I lied.” Junhui lowers his voice with the last word, leaning closer to Soonyoung. “Faked transcripts and ran all the way to another kingdom.”

“That’s…” Soonyoung shakes his head in disbelief. “What are you going to do when you graduate?”

“When, not if?”

“Hey, I’m going to lead us all to the victory that is becoming hunters. Trust me.” Soonyoung thumps himself in the chest and flinches. “Ow.”

“When I graduate… be a hunter? I mean… That’s what I want. I might go home, apologize for running away and explain my reasons, but after all that work to become one, what else would I do?”

“I guess you’re right,” Soonyoung says, nodding. “What else would you do?”

“Then, what are you going to do?”

“Huh?”

“When you graduate.”

“Hm,” Soonyoung hums, smiling. “Be a hunter, of course. Hey, and if any of you stick around, continue to be a leader.”

 

There’s something ironic about the fact that instead of hunting down the monster, it finds them. Junhui can see his teammates scatter around the area when the creature attacks. Seeming not to know who to follow, it growls and focuses it attention on the nearest person to it: Chan. The creature is cat-like in stature, lanky and fuzzy with unnatural-looking green fur. Its eyes are blank, yellow, and unfocused.

Chan lets out a startled noise when its head whips around at him, leg drawing back like it’s going to pounce. Junhui is currently the furthest away from it so he reaches for a knife- the string of them tied to his waist now as he left the bag behind- and throws it. Part of him thinks it’s just luck when it hits the creature’s shoulder.

“Chan!” Soonyoung calls, breaking the other out of his shock. While Chan puts distance between himself and the monster, Junhui sighs in relief. Then he remembers its attention is on him now.

“Well,” Junhui mumbles, nervous.

“Junhui! Run!”

Junhui doesn’t need to be told twice, immediately spinning on his heels and sprinting in between trees. Diving behind another tree, Junhui grabs another knife and turns around. The monster slides past him, stops, and turns to face him again. A second passes, where he takes a deep breath, then he throws the knife at its head. It hits the beast’s eye and Junhui winces despite the fact he was the one that had done it.

Then he runs again. The monster falls behind, startled. Junhui wonders what he should do. A hand grabs his wrist, pulling him behind a tree while the monster finally moves again, before he can figure it out. Minghao lets go of him once they’re behind the tree, out of the monster’s view.

It runs past them and Junhui sighs in relief. From where he is, he can see Soonyoung- and a second later Chan- following it.

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, well.” Minghao shrugs, dismissing the words. “Come on I’ll tell you what we’re supposed to do.”

Junhui follows Minghao, listening to Soonyoung’s new, improvised plan.

It was stressful, and Junhui had been- was- legitimately afraid. Still, he’s certain this is what he wants. Being a hunter is what he wants. Attending this hunter’s academy is what he wants. Junhui nods when Minghao asks if he understands the plan. He’s certain about this.


	12. Scared Of Monsters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumbler Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148838028535/
> 
> Once again beta read by the lovely jeonkwan (on ao3)

Chan isn’t scared of monsters. At least, he told himself that when he was little and shouting about how he’d one day be a hunter. Maybe Chan is scared of monsters. He tells himself that training, facing them, will make that fade away and allow him to be what he’d always wanted to be.

The training required to get into a hunter’s academy comes from combat schools. There lies the problem for Chan, though. Because combat schools couldn’t allow their students to fight monsters, all their training comes with fighting each other. Despite being monitored, a lot of students get hurt during these fights. Chan wasn’t terribly scared of getting hurt- though he didn’t particularly want to- but hurting others was something he couldn’t bring himself to do.

The idea just didn’t sit right with him. He wanted, was hoping to, fight monsters. Not humans. Why should being able to fight other humans matter when he wasn’t going to? That logic found its place in his thoughts during the full week he’d spent at a combat school. So he left. Packed his things up and decided to fake his way into a hunter’s academy.

Chan knew the risks. There was no way not to, with the reputation the schools held. Knowing wasn’t enough to stop him, though. Determined to prove that learning to fight humans was pointless- to himself, at the very least- he went through with it.

Watching the other team fight a monster made fear seep back in, though. Is he really not scared of monsters? Even getting over the fear by facing them requires his survival against one. In his anxious state of thought, Soonyoung pulls him aside.

“What’s your weapon?” Soonyoung’s question is met with a nervous laugh.

“Well, a staff…” Chan’s words trail off, and he shuts his mouth, forming a line.

“Do you know how to use it?”

“Vaguely.”

“We’ll… work on that later,” Soonyoung nods. “For now, stick by me while we’re in there, okay?”

“Okay.”

“And… I have a question for you.”

“Sure, of course.”

“What are you going to do, when you graduate?”

“When I graduate? Be a hunter, of course. That’s why we’re all here, isn’t it?”

“Some people want the attention more than to actually be one.”

“But I want to be one, with or without the attention.”

“Why, though?” Soonyoung asks, voice soft. Why? Chan had come this far to fight monsters. That was his entire goal.

“To fight monsters?” Chan replies. It comes out more of a question than an answer.

“Yes, of course. But why? Why come here and not go- er- to the other place? Why become a hunter at all?”

“I want to fight monsters. I wanted… I didn’t want to fight other humans and that was all ‘that other place’ was. Monsters don’t have ‘souls’ even when they’re alive, so I can handle the idea of fighting- of hurting- them. Humans are another story entirely.”

“Because you didn’t want to hurt people, huh? Some people would say that is a childish idea.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“No.” Soonyoung shakes his head and smiles. “I don’t think it is. Childish, I mean. Hunters are here to protect people, right? Why learn to fight each other?”

“Yeah.” Chan nods. “That’s what I thought! Why I came here.”

 

Chan is scared of monsters. That much is obvious when they find the monster- or, it finds them, rather- and he freezes. His whole body stops, his mind stops. Even when it’s lead away and he runs, he can still feel the pounding of his heart in his throat.

“You’re here to fight monsters, right? There’s a monster.” Soonyoung pats him on the back. Chan laughs, but doesn’t feel happy. A monster was right there and he froze, despite fighting them being his entire reason for being here. Soonyoung’s next words aren’t harsh. “You could hide until we’ve dealt with it.”

Hide? His immediate thought is to agree. Hiding would keep him safe. Hiding is safe. Then Chan’s thoughts catch up with the actual situation. He’s on a team, on the battle field, training to be a hunter. How could he just leave his team to deal with it, when he said this was what he wanted?

“No.” Chan shakes his head. A deep breath later, Chan straightens his back with a nod of his head. “Sorry, I’ll be fine. What do we do now?”

“Now, we need to get it away from Junhui. He’s got throwing knives, he shouldn’t be that close to it. I mean… he can be, but right now, I don’t want him to be.”

“What’s the plan, then?” Minghao stumbles next to them.

“Get Junhui out of its line of sight. It’ll probably keep running, then we can be the ones following it, instead of the other way around.”

“Okay.”

 

Why become a hunter at all? Chan can’t shake the question from his mind. What was his goal? To fight monsters, right? But, why?

Chan follows Soonyoung, who tails the monster. It seems like the beast doesn’t realize it’s being followed, or maybe it is still on the hunt for Junhui without realizing what was behind it. It seems that way until the beast slides to a halt, and turns around. In turn, Soonyoung and Chan come to a stand still as well.

“It noticed us.” Soonyoung’s statement comes out blank. A clawed paw comes at them, and Soonyoung immediately turns, pulling Chan out of its way. They fall to the ground, the sudden momentum throwing Chan off balance and causing them both to fall.

Soonyoung is back on his feet quickly. Chan pushes himself up with his arms, slower, but still quick. Getting up doesn’t happen quick _enough_ though. Chan is only barely back on his feet when the creature attacks again. He barely has time to process a muttered curse from Soonyoung, before he realizes it’s too late to move. He’s going to be hit.

It doesn’t happen, though. Soonyoung is quick enough to put himself between Chan and it, weapon at the ready. Rapiers aren’t really meant for defending, Crystal reinforced or not. Nor is Soonyoung strong enough to stop the blow. Still, he manages to give Chan the chance to dive away, before being thrown back by the force of the strike.

Soonyoung rolls, groans in pain, and then tries to get up.

Why fight monsters? Chan stumbles out of his shock, running towards Soonyoung and pulling the other back to his feet. A second later they narrowly avoid being pounced on by the cat-like monster yet again.

“Are you okay?!” Chan gasps, giving Soonyoung a once-over.

“Yeah, mostly. You?”

“I’m fine.” Chan nods, releasing Soonyoung’s shoulders as Soonyoung stands back up-right. “Hey, is now a bad time to say I figured something out?”

“No, go ahead.” Soonyoung laughs, glancing in the direction of the monster to find its attention now on their other teammates. “But quickly.”

“You asked before, why be a hunter specifically?”

“I did.”

“I figured it out.”

“So, what is the reason?”

“People are scared of monsters. I am, even.” Chan sighs, clutching his staff tighter. “They’ll probably do what I did and freeze if they see one.”

“So, to protect people who are scared of them?”

“Right.”

“Okay.” Soonyoung nods. Then he gives a smile that Chan thinks means he’s satisfied with the answer.

Chan nods too, returning his attention to the monster. Chan is scared of monsters, there’s no question about that. There are hopes he has that one day, he wouldn’t be scared anymore. However, even if he’s always going to be scared of them, this was the choice he made. Fighting monsters is the choice he’s made, afraid of them or not.

“What now?”

“We rework the plan. Again.”


	13. Reason To Want

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao know what he wants to do, but not why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumbler Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148882933195/
> 
> Once again beta read by the lovely jeonkwan (on ao3)

In order to maintain some amount of respect, combat schools have much stricter rules than hunter’s academies. Hunters are highly respected already, so their academies get the same regard. Combat schools, though, are mostly known for being the barrier to entry for hunter’s academies. Thus, combat schools all seemed to agree on having more rules and requirements for their applicants.

The first of the barriers implemented was the tuition. There’s a price to pay to attend combat school, unless one’s talent is enough to get one a scholarship. Then, to further distance themselves from academies, they’ve stopped allowing their students to fight monsters. Because they were trying to maintain an appearance of a safe training environment, students dying in their care would look bad.

Minghao had understood, and had been fine, with these things. He could afford to go, and fighting monsters could wait.

What had been more difficult to accept was the thing that kept him from attending. Though he had made it into combat school, his attendance hadn’t lasted long, since anything remotely similar to a criminal record was grounds for immediate expulsion. Even if he had been defending himself.

Not one to take anything from others, Minghao had fought back, and won, when attacked. But they didn’t care that he was defending himself and expelled him anyway. Other combat schools in his kingdom- the Northern Kingdom- had been given his records, causing a kingdom-wide ban from combat school against him.

Thus, Minghao decided to not only leave his kingdom, but also skip combat school entirely.

In some ways, he was sure that had been a terrible idea. Any lack of training meant he could easily fall behind his other students. Additionally, hunter’s academies allowed students- expected them- to fight monsters, meaning he was in more danger. Still, this was what he wanted. Finding out his fellow teammates- sans his leader- were in the same position as him when it came to a lack of training, did nothing but make him more certain, and validate his choice.

One by one, Soonyoung pulls aside his team, while the first team dealt with their monster. So Minghao wasn’t surprised when Soonyoung approached him as well.

“I would ask what your weapon is, but I can see it.” Soonyoung motions to the gun strapped to Minghao’s side. Though Minghao had always been better at hand-to-hand combat, he needed something to deal specifically with monsters. He’d chosen a weapon that he could use when attacking from a distance.

“Okay?” Minghao raises an eyebrow to emphasize his confusion. “Why pull me aside then?”

“Two reasons: to check it’s just what it looks like, and to ask something else.”

“It’s just a normal gun.”

“Awesome. Then the second question.”

“Yes?”

“What are you going to do once you graduate?”

“Once I graduate? If- when- we graduate, I’m going to be a hunter. What else would I do?”

“Okay, then, why be a hunter?”

“ _Why?_ ” Minghao isn’t sure what Soonyoung meant by that.

“That’s what I asked, yes.”

“I…” Minghao trails off, unsure of how to answer. When he was young, he’d heard only great things about hunters, which compelled him to become one. At any point in his life, had he ever considered doing anything else? Minghao doesn’t think he has. This has always been his goal, his reasoning lost somewhere in the years. “I just… always have?”

“But you didn’t go to combat school.” Soonyoung glances up as if he were trying to remember, then falters. “No, wait, you said you had for a while, didn’t you?” His voice is quiet, trying not to be overheard by their professors.

“Yeah,” Minghao nods, confirming the question. “I got… kicked out.”

“Did you kill someone?”

“What?!” Minghao gasps, startled by the ease with which Soonyoung asks it. He pauses when the others turn to them before shaking his head. Once their attention is elsewhere again, he glares. “What kind of question is that? Of course not. How can you ask something like that at all? To ask it so straight forwardly too…”

“Your reaction was suspicious.” Soonyoung narrows his eyes, causing Minghao to roll his.

“No, he’s still alive.”

“Who?”

Instead of answering that question, Minghao explains indirectly. “You know anything resembling a criminal record is grounds for a ban from attending combat school? You can’t attend that, let alone this academy. It was self defense but still… I got kicked out of the school I attended. Banned from any in my kingdom, actually. So I came here, and faked records.”

“I see,” Soonyoung nods, pats Minghao’s shoulder, and smiles. “Thanks for telling me.”

“I- sure?”

 

When you work towards a goal for a long time, remembering why you were doing it in the first place becomes harder. In the middle of a fight wasn’t the time to be thinking about it, but Minghao found his thoughts wondering to the question. Why had he wanted to be one?

Junhui and Minghao draw the monster’s attention again- so much for getting its attention away from Junhui- so Soonyoung and Chan could recover from its attacks.

“You go left, I go right?” Junhui offers when the beast turns to them, its now singular, unfocused eye vaguely registering them.

“Okay.” Minghao nods and lowers himself in preparation for the next attack. The monster lowers, then pounces. As agreed, Minghao dives to his left while Junhui runs right. Being that its right eye is the only one without a knife in it, the beast is unable to see Junhui on the left, so it chases Minghao.

His instinct is to defend himself, but Minghao shakes the thought away. Punching or kicking the monster probably wouldn’t do any good. Instead, Minghao runs, using the trees to take quick turns by grabbing them as he swings around them. The monster may be faster- at least when it wasn’t trying to strike- but it was also bigger and couldn’t maneuver through the trees as easily.

It begins to fall behind and gives Minghao the chance to break from its line of sight. Taking aim to where Minghao assumes it will come from, he takes a deep breath and steadies himself. Pounding steps indicate the creature’s arrival a second before its lanky green limbs come into view alongside the rest of its body. Minghao fires with no hesitation. The monster reels back, and Minghao spins around to run again.

“Minghao, duck!” Stumbling in surprise, Minghao does. There’s a brief whistle of a knife flying too close to his head for comfort, then he hears the monster cry out again. Looking up, Minghao glares at Junhui.

“Seriously?! You could have hit me!” His words come out between breaths, running taking all the oxygen that he needs for speaking.

“But I didn’t!” Junhui defends, waiting until Minghao reaches him to begin running again as well. “You’ve got to admit that was a pretty good shot.”

“Is it a ‘shot’ if you throw something?”

“Then a good _throw_. Does it matter?”

“What did you hit?” Minghao hasn’t looked back at the monster, too focused on getting as far away as possible from their target, ironic, right?

“Its other eye.”

“Ow.”

“Should I feel bad?”

“It is trying to kill us, and vice versa, so no,” Minghao grins, “probably not.”

 

Why be a hunter, specifically? Minghao is sure he had a reason at some point, must have. To be a hero? To slay monsters? To protect people? None of them sound right in Minghao’s mind. None fit. What made him want to be a hunter? What had he been working for this entire time?

Minghao sighs and glances around at his teammates. All of them are regrouping with the monster still nearby, searching for them. Why were they here? Were their reasons better than his?

“Minghao will stay the furthest back since he is better at attacking from a distance,” Soonyoung explains, bringing Minghao back from his thoughts. He nods in understanding, and Soonyoung moves on.

Does it even matter? Minghao moves into position behind the rest of his team. Sure, it was a dangerous choice, but this was what he wanted to do. Did he need a specific reason to want this? To want something, did there need to be a reason? Maybe there should be, maybe one day he’ll regret it. But he doesn’t now. Right now, this is what Minghao wants, and he’s happy with this choice.

Why be a hunter? Minghao nods to himself. “Just because I want to.”

“Did you say something?” It’s Chan who hears him, as he was standing closest.

“No. Don’t worry about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you'd like to see a terribly made map of this stories universe, there is one: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148882717935


	14. What Happens Later?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Soonyoung thinks about it, he doesn't even know the answer to his own question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148958732615  
> Beta read once again by the lovely jeonkwon (on ao3)  
> Also if there isn't a chapter tomorrow that can be blamed on the exciting birthday celebrations that are sleeping.

Soonyoung would be the first to admit careful planning wasn’t his strongest suit. However, years of practice and natural ability gave him another strength; quick thinking and quick actions. As long as he knew the situation, he could act without the need to spend a lot of time on the solutions. Hence why he made sure he knew as many variables as possible before his team went to hunt their first monster. What are their strengths? What are their goals? What are their weapons? All things Soonyoung made sure he knew, at least to some extent, before going into battle.

The plan was simple, find the monster and hopefully get the drop on it. When the monster found them first and that was no longer an option, he was quick to change tactics. Keeping his team safe was priority over killing the monster, so, he made judgment calls quickly on their actions.

Chan is scared. So Soonyoung wasn’t going to force him forward into battle. What good would that do? Maybe telling Chan he could stay behind was partially Soonyoung’s attempt to see if Chan had the determination to continue despite his fear. He did. Soonyoung watched Chan make the choice to keep fighting anyway and though he hadn’t known the other for very long, felt proud.

Chan is scared but determined, so Soonyoung tells him to stay back and be prepared to fight. He knows that Chan needs to face this, but doesn’t want to put him head-first into the situation.

Junhui is confident in his abilities. At least, he seems so outwardly. Soonyoung believes it too, up until they’re actually in battle. When Junhui hits the monster with his throws, there’s surprise on his face despite his apparent confidence. Faith in himself only went so far. Though overconfidence wasn’t a good thing, believing in yourself held value.

Junhui is confident externally and unsure internally. Thus Soonyoung gives him an extra comment after setting his role in the newest version of the plan. “And, hey, you’ve done really well so far. Especially with those throws at its eyes.”

Minghao is quick in mind and instinct. He’s fast to take directions, acting on them or on his own instinct when not given any. Quickly picking up on Soonyoung’s plans and taking action, Minghao is someone Soonyoung can already see doing really well in the future. Still, he has a lack of direction. At least, Soonyoung thinks so due to the way Minghao acts in regards to his questions. He knows what he wants to do, but not why. Maybe that isn’t a bad thing, and Soonyoung isn’t going to say that it is, but it’s still something he notices.

Minghao is quick to action, maybe too much so. He acts before he really knows why. Soonyoung puts him further back, behind the rest of them, in the newest version of the plan and hopes he’ll take more time to think his actions through when he’s at a distance.

 

Soonyoung had asked them all what they were going to do once they graduated. Be a hunter, they all said. Soonyoung, too, had said the same thing. Even though he knows he meant beyond that. Beyond being a hunter. What did they want to do once they were one? Travel? Protect? What would they do when given that freedom?

Soonyoung raises his weapon. A rapier forged with Crystal dust in order to make it stronger, to be able to take more damage if needed. Soonyoung watches the monster spin around, listening for signs of its pray: them.

Soonyoung nods, and watches as Junhui takes aim and chucks another knife. The monster is quick to spin in Junhui’s direction, lowering itself as if ready to pounce. With a deep breath, Soonyoung moves, and thrusts forward to stab the creature’s leg.

It tumbles forward, balance lost, and Soonyoung pulls back. Aiming this time for its neck, Soonyoung repeats the action. It doesn’t do much more than draw the creature’s attention to him, and make it upset, but it’s not really supposed to. Quick damage was hardly serious damage.

Turning in Soonyoung’s direction, the monster shoots forward. Soonyoung narrowly ducks out of the way as it shoots past him. Stumbling, Soonyoung presses himself against a tree.

Four. That’s the number of shots Soonyoung can hear Minghao fire. If he had managed what was planned to happen, the shots should have hit it in the neck. Soonyoung had no shame in copying the previous team’s strategy. Of course, Minghao’s bullets had no additional affects and Soonyoung was the only of his teammates with a sword, so changes had to be made.

Their actions may have upset the monster more, but they were also _working_. The signs of damage are clear when Soonyoung leans around the tree to look at it. Monsters don’t bleed, but seeing that they’re hurt is obvious by the leaking of energy from their wounds. Waves of green, flame-like light were being drawn from its neck and into the air.

Growling, the monster runs into a tree. Now comes Chan’s part. His weapon wasn’t bladed nor was it piercing, so his part of the plan revolved not around doing damage, but making sure the others could. There’s hesitance in his movement that worries Soonyoung, but Chan still forces himself forward. A strike to one of the beast’s legs is given and Chan dodges under its claws when it tries to retaliate. It stumbles over when it doesn’t hit anything and Chan uses the chance to pull the two of Junhui’s knives that aren’t in its eyes out. With that done, he runs out of its range again.

Soonyoung passes Chan as while moving to attack again. Keeping the monster under constant attack so everyone could do their parts of the plan was a major factor in Soonyoung’s strategy. Like him, most of his teammates had speed on their side over anything else. So using that to their advantage, his plan required constant movement.

From that point, they continue to focus their attacks on its neck. Repeated fire from bullets, attacks from knives, and a rapier slowly doing the damage they need to kill it. Chan ends up running between them, recovering and returning Junhui’s knives or leading the monster when he or Minghao don’t have good shots at it.

It’s almost anti-climatic when it happens. One of Soonyoung’s strikes goes through too easily, the damage they’ve done thus far having weakened the monster. He pulls his rapier down rather than back this time, cutting through its neck. It only takes one more strike before the monster is dust- green like its fur and energy- on the ground.

“It’s… over?” Chan voices their question. They’d sort of expected something more dramatic. Something less perfectly following their simple plan. “We won?”

“Looks like it.” Junhui nods, staring at the dust remains.

“Wow, you guys sound excited.” Sarcasm laces Minghao’s voice. “We won! We’re alive, _we won._ ”

“Yeah,” Junhui nods. His expression shifts. First disbelief then to realization, and finally settles on happy. “We did it! We killed a monster!”

“Exactly.”

“I knew we would!” Junhui grins, and holds up his hands like he’s expecting high-fives. He gets one, at least, from Chan. Minghao gives him a look that says he’s not going to and Soonyoung is too busy laughing at that to give him one. “Alright so I’ve just decided that Chan is my favourite.”

“Nice.” Chan grins.

“Sorry, sorry.” Soonyoung smiles. With a sigh, he stretches out his arms, his tension falling away now that they’re safe. “Come on, let’s go gloat about our victory.”

 

When they return they’re met with the congratulations of Seungcheol’s team. Soonyoung at first thinks to ask where the other team is, until he takes a glance past the others and finds said team asleep.

“Did they sleep through the whole thing?” Junhui asks, frowning.

“Pretty much,” Is Wonwoo’s answer.

Minghao makes it his personal mission to wake them up, assisted by Chan, and manages to wake Seungkwan and Seokmin while having no luck with the rest.

Once Seungcheol’s team is off to face their monster, Minghao gives up and joins those that are awake in the viewing area. Soonyoung, rather than go to watch, plops himself on the ground with a sigh. Now that he doesn’t have to worry about anything else for the day, he has a chance to think more.

There’s the feelings of a bruise starting over his back from when he got thrown back, but otherwise things had gone better than expected. Soonyoung likes to think it meant his questions had payed off.

_‘What do you want to do when you graduate? Why be a hunter?’_

Chan wants to slay monsters. He wants to protect people that are as scared as he was- or still is, really. So that’s what he was planning to do once he is a hunter.

Junhui wants to be a hunter like his family- parents, Soonyoung assumed- Is, but on his own terms. Is planning to prove that his choice is a good one once he becomes a hunter.

Minghao wants to be a hunter. His reasons aren’t all there, but that’s what he wants. What he’ll do once he’s a hunter, Soonyoung doesn’t know, but he thinks Minghao will be fine in whatever he does.

Why be a hunter? Soonyoung hadn’t always wanted to be one, but passion drew him to the idea. It brought him here. What will he do when he graduates? Soonyoung had answered the question when Junhui asked. Had said that he would be a hunter, and maybe even keep being a leader. But, why?

What was he going to do specifically? Fight monsters? Travel? Protect people, or live for himself? Soonyoung sighs, closes his eyes, and flops back to lay on the ground.

Had he really never thought that far ahead? Soonyoung always thought his goals were clear, thought he had his life planned out well. But did he really? If he couldn’t even answer his own question, how thought through was this plan to be a hunter?

“Are you okay there, Soonyoung?” Soonyoung opens his eyes to find Seokmin looking down at him.

“Oh, yeah. Fine.” Seokmin accepts the answer, returning to the others. Soonyoung sits up to look at them. It seemed Jeonghan and Jisoo had woken up now as well, having joined the others in watching Seungcheol’s team.

Soonyoung glances at his own team, watching them discuss what was going on with the other team, or explain what had happened with their own to those who had been asleep. He smiles. If he could, he’d want to continue leading them once he graduates. Maybe that won’t happen- maybe he’ll change his mind- but that’s the clearest goal he has for the future beyond that point.

“I hear you stole our strategy.” Jihoon drops down next to him, yawning as he does so.

“Hey, whatever works. And that was what worked.”

“Fair enough.”

“Hey, Jihoon.”

“Yeah?”

“What are you going to do once you graduate?” Soonyoung turns his head to face Jihoon, who looks surprised by the question.

“Isn’t that something you should be asking your team?”

“I already have. That was my way of figuring out what they wanted.”

“Huh, I just asked my team why they wanted to be hunters.”

“Yeah? Huh.”

“I’m going to offer ideas for the protection of our kingdom to people who will listen.” The statement sounds rehearsed and Soonyoung laughs.

“Is that so? I’m going to be a hunter.”

“Why?”

“I… because it’s what I’m passionate about.” Soonyoung nods to himself. “Why become a hunter if you’re not going to well… ‘be a hunter’?”

“It’s the easiest way to my goals.”

“If you say so.”

“So, if I asked my team why they wanted to be a hunter, and you asked yours what they wanted to do as one, I wonder what Seungcheol asked his team. If it was that or something else.”

“We’ll have to ask when he gets back,” Soonyoung says, smiling. “I feel a little better knowing we had similar methods for learning about our teams. I know I saw Seungcheol pulling his team members aside earlier so he must have too, in some way. Sort of confirms that, at the very least, I’m only as bad a leader as you two.”

“Really?” Jihoon shakes his head, “Your team listens to you, and you figured out how to use their strengths. That’s what counts, I think. You’re fine.”

“Wow. Thanks.” Soonyoung is genuinely thankful, and Jihoon shrugs. “You are, too, for the record.”

“Well, I know that.” The statement is joking.

“Alright.” Soonyoung laughs and Jihoon smiles in return. “Should we get back to our teams, then?”

“Yeah.”

Soonyoung hadn’t realized he wanted to be a leader until he was one. Now that he was, though, he’s glad. Leading is stressful already, sure, but there is something to be said about how happy he feels despite that.

“So, what have we missed?” Soonyoung asks as he returns to the others.

“Welcome back,” Minghao says, rather than answering.

“Not much.” Chan shrugs.

“You okay?” Junhui asks, throwing an arm over Soonyoung’s shoulders.

“Yeah, fine.”

_‘What do you want to do when you graduate?’_

Soonyoung isn’t totally sure yet, but he knows enough for now. He wants to be a hunter and wants to keep being a leader. Specifics could come later. He has years to think about it. Until then, this is what he wants to do and that’s all he needs to know.


	15. Need To Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu never questioned if he would be a hunter, nor if he wanted to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/148997206070/  
> Beta read by the lovely jeonkwon (on ao3)  
> whoops, so much for what I said about not updating today.

Within the Eastern Kingdom, there exist towns where all residents are hunters. They’re places that are easy to call on when other towns are in times of need. Children who grow up in these towns, by the side of their hunter parents, tend to become hunters as well. There are high hopes for the children who are born there.

Mingyu was no exception. While growing up, there were subtle differences in the way he, and the children around him, were raised in comparison to others, but this never made him particularly unhappy. He was still a happy child. As children around him grew into students old enough to go to combat school, Mingyu watched them go off to train, one by one, knowing that  one day, that would be him, alongside his peers. That was what his whole life had been leading up to; it was something he was ready for.

But he got sick. Illness wracked his body, sending him under the careful monitoring of doctors.

Rarely, there are people with allergies to certain types of Crystals. As far as Mingyu knew he hadn’t had one, but that was what doctors told him when explaining his sickness. He’d developed an allergy to the Crystals his parents kept in their home. Green Crystals held the power of electricity, and their home was filled with them because they were in his parents’ weapons. Mingyu was allergic to the thing he’d been in constant contact with since he was a child.

Treatments went on for years, slowly drawing Mingyu out of the weak state he was in. Over time, with the removal of the green Crystals from his home, he got better. He was happy. No, he should have been happy. But how could he be? When it took so long, when he was so far behind where he was supposed to be, how could he be happy?

Everyone he’d grown up with, that was his age, would be in a hunter’s academy and he would have barely started combat school. Everyone had given up on him and left him behind. At the very least, that’s what it felt like.

Mingyu didn’t want to fall behind, he wanted to recover and catch up to them. Lying to his parents, Mingyu left for a hunter’s academy, fake transcripts in hand. They would realize eventually, he knew, that he wasn’t where he said he was going. Still, Mingyu couldn’t bring himself to worry about it. All he could seem to think about was how much training he had to catch up on.

 

“Mingyu.” Seungcheol calls, drawing Mingyu away from the viewing area as the first team fights their monster.

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“What will you do once you’re a hunter?” Seungcheol’s question is soft. Mingyu blinks once, twice, before realizing he doesn’t have an answer.

“I don’t know.”

“Then why become a hunter?”

“This is…” What else would he do? Mingyu shakes his head. “I need to.”

Their conversation went to weapons, then. Mingyu explains that he was trained with a long bow, so there wasn’t any need to worry about him not being able to use it.

Mingyu doesn’t expect that Seungcheol will ask the same question again, but he does, though with different wording. Mingyu doesn’t know how to answer, though. ‘Because I need to’ the only thing Mingyu is able to express, not knowing what else to say.

“Mingyu.”

“Yeah?” Mingyu huffs, silently hoping Seungcheol wouldn’t ask again. He hadn’t thought Seungcheol would be the type to push a question, but Mingyu also hadn’t known him more than couple days, so maybe he just hadn’t realized if he was.

“What about you do you want to change by being here? Why is it important that you become a hunter?”

“Because I have to be!” Mingyu himself is startled by his own yelling. There’s a silent pause where Mingyu waves off the concern of the others until they turn back around. Frustration settles in Mingyu’s chest, making him realize exactly why he didn’t want to be asked. He doesn’t know the answer. That he needs to be a hunter is all that he can say, it’s all he knows.

“Mingyu…”

“Nothing about me- I don’t need to-” Mingyu sighs, trying to find the words he needs- “if I change or not doesn’t matter.”

“Doesn’t it?”

“I was supposed to train my whole life for this. Everyone around me did; everyone I knew went to combat school and are becoming hunters now. But I got sick and fell behind, so they gave up on me. To become a hunter… I should have gone to combat school years ago.” His voice lowers to a whisper, weary of their professors. “But I didn’t have a chance, or time. If I want to become a hunter, I have to be here, now.”

“But do you?”

“Do I… what?” Mingyu frowns, unclear on which part of his explanation Seungcheol is questioning.

“Want to be a hunter?”

Does he? Mingyu frowns, stares at the ground like it will give him answers. “I…”

“If something about you changes while you’re here, what do you want it to be?”

“I haven’t thought about it,” Mingyu admits. Not once in his life has he questioned if he would be a hunter, and not once has he questioned if _he_ wanted to be.

“You don’t have to right now, but you should think about it.”

 

Mingyu kneels on the ground in wait, bow drawn and at the ready. Whatever their monster is, it should be lead into his view by Hansol. Time spent waiting is time spent thinking. Mingyu tries to push the thoughts aside, focus on the space in front of him without thinking of anything else, but can’t seem to.

Why is he here? Mingyu knows it’s to be a hunter, but why is he doing this? His whole life it was all he ever thought about being, because that’s all anyone ever told him he would be. A frown forms on his face. Is that what he wants? Mingyu tries to figure it out but can’t seem to find an answer. If he does or doesn’t want to be is hard to make out past the need he feels to do what he’s been working towards so far.

He’s finally broken from his thoughts by Hansol running by a few yards away, followed by the monster. It’s cow-like, if cows had an extra set of legs and no utters. Mingyu’s mind supplies ‘spider cow’ but that doesn’t quite seem to fit, legs too stocky to be spider-like. Its skin is blue, eyes shine orange, and is large enough that Mingyu would have trouble reaching the top of its head.

Mingyu fires an arrow, which hits the beast’s side- right above one of its extra, middle legs- before nocking another arrow. It doesn’t take but a second for the monster to turn, facing him. He lets the arrow go, hitting the monster in the left side of its head. Then Mingyu stands and runs to his right as the monster runs towards him.

The sound of the monster reaching the spot Mingyu had been reaches him just before the sound of a gun firing does. Loud and echoing, the sound of a rifle makes Mingyu spin around. As he expects, the monster’s attention is away from him now. So Mingyu raises his bow again and takes aim at the distant creature. Another arrow hits the monster, this time in the side of its neck. There’s an orange, smokey wave of something- energy, Mingyu reminds himself- that comes from all of its wounds. Its head is more orange than blue now, because of this.

It turns its attention back to Mingyu, who runs again. This time he goes right, determined to lead it in a circles so they could keep attacking.

 

If someone had asked him before he’d gotten sick, Mingyu would not have hesitated to say he wanted to be a hunter. Protecting people, being a hero, it all sounded like something he wanted. When had he stopped being sure? Mingyu doesn’t know how it happened, how something he’d been working his whole life towards stopped being something he was certain he wanted. It’s not even that he _doesn’t_ want to be a hunter. Mingyu can’t figure out if he does or not.

‘I need to be,’ Mingyu had said. He needed, not he wanted. So why is he here, really? Because he didn’t want to be left behind? Because he was scared that he wouldn’t meet his own or someone else’s expectations?

 

“Am I wasting my time?” Mingyu wonders, his back pressed against a tree. They’d repositioned themselves, meaning he was yet again waiting for the monster to be in place so he could attack it.

“Wasting it with what?” MIngyu jumps at Hansol’s voice. In turn, Hansol laughs at him. “It’s on its way, by the way.”

“Oh.” Mingyu nods, takes aim in the direction the monster will be coming from. He can hear the footsteps in the distance. “Also… it’s nothing.”

Mingyu realizes, as he says so, that he’s over-thinking things. Yes, he wants to figure out how he feels about this, to know if this is what he actually wants. But there are years between now and when he actually becomes a hunter. Years he has to figure out if this is something he can see himself doing, and enjoying, in the future. It’s not like he has to be one, even if he graduates from the academy.

One day, he’ll figure it out. Mingyu believes he’ll figure out how he feels with enough time, and he decides he doesn’t need to stress himself over it.

 _‘Do you want to be?’_ Maybe he doesn’t or maybe he does, but either way, he’s here. Either way, he went through the trouble of lying to get here, he might as well focus on training until he sorts himself out.


	16. Reckless or Impulsive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/149034387515/  
> Beta read by the lovely jeonkwon (on ao3)

Children who grow up further away from the kingdoms’ center see monsters a lot more than those who don’t. That’s just to be expected, being that monsters were kept from getting further into the kingdom by defenses and hunters. Though Hansol didn’t grow up on the border of the kingdom, his home town was still far enough out that he’d seen monsters multiple times.

With seeing monster, he also saw hunters. The heroes of the kingdom, coming to stop monsters that got too close to the towns. Admiration turned to determination, making him want to be just like them. It made him want to be a hunter.

There are a lot of combat schools and hunter’s academies in the Eastern Kingdom. In comparison to the other kingdoms, at least. So Hansol’s faith that he could get into one was pretty high. There were plenty of places for him to try if the first didn’t allow him in. Though he couldn’t afford a full tuition, Hansol believed at the very least he could get a partial scholarship on skill alone. So he trained until  he was old enough to head out.

There was a combat school just west of where he grew up- only three towns away- so that was where he went first. His hard work paid off, too, earning Hansol entry to the school and access to the training he needed.

Not only did he make it in, but once he had, he did well. Made it through training even to the point of forging weapons. That was when things stopped going as well, though. Training could only do so much, his teacher told him, it couldn’t solve all of his problems.

Hansol hadn’t understood. He was working hard, doing well even, but his teachers seemed determined to break his spirit and hopes. The reason why became clearer, eventually.

“You’re too reckless.” They told him. Said that and left it at that, without ever giving him advice on being more careful. Maybe it had just been that school, maybe another combat school would have been different, and taught him how to act in a battle ‘properly’. Hansol didn’t consider it, though.

Maybe all it did is prove they were right, but Hansol didn’t care. He dragged himself to the opposite side of the kingdom, got ahold of fake transcripts, and lied his way into a hunter’s academy.

 

“So,” Seungcheol starts, having pulled Hansol aside. “What’s your weapon?”

“Alright, hear me out. Giant blade Yo-Yo.”

“No.”

“Nobody ever considers the idea.”

“Is it really?”

“It’s a circular blade on wire, but it doesn’t spin so… I guess not. It’s also only like, the twice the size of my hand so maybe ‘giant’ doesn’t work either.”

“I’m pretty sure,” Seungcheol pauses, thinking, “that is a weapon with a name. Though what it is, I don’t know.”

“Blade yo-yo.”

“You said yourself it doesn’t even spin.”

“One day.”

Seungcheol laughs, shaking his head. “Alright, alright. On a serious note I had something else to ask.”

“Shoot.”

“What are you going to do after this?”

“After today? Or after the academy?”

“The latter.”

“Slay monsters? Be a hunter?” Hansol’s words sound like he’s questioning Seungcheol more than his own answers, and he shrugs. “Protect people, I guess.”

“Have you thought about it a lot?”

“I don’t know if I would say that. Just enough that I know this is what I want to do.”

“I have another question.”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Is there something you’re hoping will change while you’re here?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, are you hoping to get stronger? Are you hoping to change in some other way?”

“Are you?” Hansol’s question is just an excuse to give himself more time to think.

“Yes.”

“I’m here to…” Hansol’s words trail off and he pauses before shaking his head. “I went to combat school. They said I was too reckless. Time and time again they told me I wasn’t using my head enough without ever telling me how to. I guess, that would be what I hope to change? I was hoping I could learn better here.”

“They didn’t ever give you specific advice?”

“No.”

“Huh.” Seungcheol frowns. “I can’t help you yet, since I don’t know well enough, but if I ever notice something you can work on specifically, I’ll tell you.”

“Thanks.”

 

If there was anything Hansol learned at combat school, it would be how to use his weapon. Though not fully a distance weapon- mid-range at best- the wire gave him some distance that attacking directly wouldn’t allow, as well as giving him the ability to attack around corners.

Grabbing the wire in two places- with gloved hands- Hansol swings the weapon at a tree, causing it to wrap around said tree. The monster’s footsteps, on the other side of the tree, falter and stumble. Assuming that he’d hit it, Hansol runs around the other side of the tree after pulling his weapon back to him. As he thought, the monster runs in the direction the attack came from, allowing Hansol to get behind it.

Hansol lets as much distance as he can form between them, before swinging his weapon at the monster’s back. It comes to a halt, turning around, and Hansol runs. He breaks from its line of sight before it catches up by diving to his left. It likely will turn left at that point, too, so Hansol hurries to get to Mingyu before the monster enter the others’ line of sight.

True to his assumption, it turns at the same place he had, and keeps running that way. When Hansol reaches Mingyu the other is mumbling about wasting time, but doesn’t give a real answer when Hansol asks. The monster comes into sight for Hansol, who stands a few feet to the side of Mingyu, and he instinctively says something.

“There.” He’s not shouting and he’s certainly not trying to distract Mingyu. Still, his words startle Mingyu who releases the arrow a second too early and misses his- their- target.

“Well,” Mingyu breathes out a sigh, turning on his heels when the monster turns to them, “thanks.”

“Sorry,” Hansol says, honestly feeling bad.

“It’s fine.” Mingyu takes off, the sound of his footsteps muted over the sound of the monsters. Hansol frowns before turning to run in a different direction. Where had their other teammates been again?

The word ‘reckless’ echos around in his head as Hansol tries to find the others. Reckless wasn’t the word he would use to describe his own actions. Was he really? Is this reckless? Hansol spins around, suddenly very aware of just how many trees look alike.

“It’s more impulsive, isn’t it?” Hansol wonders to himself. He wasn’t trying to do things without thinking, but his immediate response was to act when he thought he knew how; never to second guess his first instinct.

 

Hansol was never one to second guess himself. At least, not before acting. Applying to a combat school had been his first thought when he decided he wanted to be a hunter. So that’s what he had done. Leaving combat school and faking his way into a hunter’s academy had been something he thought himself capable of, so he had. He thought it was the best way to do things. It wasn’t until later he questioned himself.

Should he have applied to a combat school based on something he wanted as a child, before considering it any further? Should he have have left combat school without trying to continue for a little longer? Should he have lied his way into a hunter’s academy when he didn’t know what he was doing? Hansol didn’t think about it until he was there, until the stress that came from regret could form.

He didn’t regret it, not entirely, but part of him thought he should.

 

Hansol sighs, leans his back on a tree and presses his hands into his face. He’s lost. His teammates, the monster, the exit, he has no idea where they were. Impulsive, right? Hansol feel sort of like laughing. Wasn’t he just proving it to himself? At the very least, he could work on it knowing what the problem was.

If he ever got out of here.

“Hansol.” Seungcheol gasps, out of breath. Panting- he must have been running- Seungcheol rests a hand on a tree. “You’re like, a mile away from the fight.”

“Really?!”

“Not literally.”

“Oh,” Hansol sighs, relieved. Though he didn’t believe he was that far to begin with, somehow being told so is still relieving.

 

“So, running without knowing where you’re going is a problem.” Seungcheol says, as he leads them back to the fight.

“Yeah.”

“That’s one thing.”

“Noted.”

“Hansol.”

“Yeah?”

“Go around the right, here, I’m going to go around the other side.”

“You got it.”

Following instructions, Hansol heads right. Running without knowing where he’s going is such a simple thing, such an easy problem to fix in most cases. Still, it was something specific. A solid thought for him to grab onto and try to fix. It was a start.

Hansol can see the monster again. It’s busy having an intense head-butting contest with a tree. Said tree happening to be where Wonwoo is, holding onto the tree trunk for dear life. Hansol’s first instinct is to draw its attention to himself, but he pauses. Wonwoo will be fine for at the very least a few more seconds.

Because he’s actively thinking about being impulsive, it’s easier to remind himself not to be. Sure, it will still be difficult in the future, but one time pausing to think is more than none.

Hansol takes a good look around the area. Seungcheol is across from him, worried and contemplative expression etched onto his face. Mingyu is behind the monster- thus to Hansol’s left- bow drawn. Wonwoo is still very much in a tree.

Hansol makes his way back, over to where Mingyu is.

“I have an idea,” Hansol whispers, just loud enough to draw Mingyu’s attention.

“Yeah?”

“If you hit it in the side, then hide, it’ll get close enough for me it hit it while still hidden. So it’ll get away from there, and not catch any of us. Then Seungcheol can help Wonwoo escape his tree prison.”

“Tree prison.”

“Is that most important part of what I just said?”

“No, sorry. Okay.” Mingyu nods, starting his way around to the right side of the monster. Hansol makes his way over to Seungcheol, repeating the idea to him. Once Seungcheol gives the plan his okay- literally- Hansol makes his way back over to where Mingyu is.

Wonwoo’s energy and grip seem to be failing him, meaning they should hurry. Mingyu fires, hitting its leg, then spins to press himself against the tree and out of sight. The monster turns, takes steps towards them, and gets hit by an attack from Hansol. They both stay out of its sight, so it runs in the direction of their attack and passes right by them. Mingyu turns to Hansol, grinning.

“It worked.”

“Someone should follow it, right? Or else we’ll lose it.”

“I’m going left.” Wonwoo made it out of the tree surprisingly quickly, in Hansol’s opinion.

“We’ll lead it that way.” Seungcheol says, patting Wonwoo on the back as if to assure him, before he takes off after the monster.

“Okay,” Mingyu nods, “I’ll go a little further that way since I don’t need to be close to it.”

 

Hansol is by himself again, but not lost this time, when he finally take the chance to breathe. Though, of course, he’d been breathing, he finally takes a few deep breaths and tries to calm himself. They weren’t doing bad, he knows, but things could go a lot worse if they weren’t working together.

Working together- which has gotten them this far- requires that they actually think about their actions. How would it affect their teammates? Something they had to ask themselves whenever they made a choice.

Maybe that was why his combat teachers had been on his case about ‘recklessness’. Because you couldn’t be impulsive, to such an extent, when you were meant to be on a team. Learning not to be before you were on one was important. Had they explained that or tried to help him, he might have felt like apologizing for doubting them.

He doesn’t regret them. The choices he’s made so far, Hansol realizes he doesn’t regret them. He regrets making them without further thought, but not that he’d made them at all.

_‘What do you want to do, after this? Is there something you’re hoping will change while you’re here?’_

Hansol wants to be a hunter, to protect people. But that’s not going to happen if he doesn’t take the time to at the very least consider options other than the first one he thinks of. Changing that isn’t going to be something that just happens, but he’ll try to at least think about what he can do with his teammates, rather than by himself.


	17. Money And Admiration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/149085480540  
> Beta read by the lovely jeonkwon (on ao3)

Growing up without much money didn’t necessarily make one unhappy, but it certainly made things more difficult. This is especially true for those who live closer to the kingdom’s capital, where most are well off. Wonwoo wasn’t particularly unhappy growing up, but there was always an underlying fear that one day everything would be ripped away because they couldn’t afford it.

Hunters earn a lot just by existing. They serve as the central force for the protection of a kingdom, thus they’re paid so they can continue to do so without worry. Wonwoo knew, from the minute he was old enough to understand his family’s situation, that he wanted to be a hunter, even if only for the money. He wanted to take care of himself and the parents that had done so much to make sure he was happy without it thus far.

Combat schools cost money. Wonwoo wasn’t talented enough at fighting to get in without it. At first he didn’t know what to do. How many years would it take of self-imposed training until he could make it in without money? Would he have time for that, or would he need to find other work before he had the chance? These questions, these thoughts, rolled around in his head until he came to a decision.

He wasn’t going to wait and find out. Combat schools are supposed to be how hunter’s academies determine that their students are ready, but Wonwoo didn’t have time for that. Instead of trying to earn his way into combat school later, he chose to dishonestly enter a hunter’s academy right then and there.

 

“What’s your weapon?” Seungcheol asks, having pulled Wonwoo aside.

“Well, a rifle. My transcript says so, at least.”

“You have it with you?”

“Yeah,” Wonwoo confirms. He’d taken years of savings with him to get a weapon that matched what his transcript said. If anything was going to get him caught, he didn’t want it to be the lack of a weapon.

“Okay. You know what you’re doing?”

“Yeah.” Wonwoo had looked to books and a few days of practice to learn before he’d been accepted into the academy.

“Okay, I have one more thing to ask, too.”

“Sure, what is it?”

“What are you going to do once you’re a hunter? I mean, what are you doing this for? What will change?”

“Those were multiple questions.” Wonwoo’s tone his joking.

“They’re all part of the same thing, though.”

“Alright,” Wonwoo nods, frowning in thought. “I don’t know what I’ll do once I’m a hunter, but I’m doing this for money.”

“That’s it?” Seungcheol looks like he wants to say something else. He shakes his head, then speaks again. “So you don’t really want to be a hunter?”

“That’s not it. I mean, maybe I don’t?” Wonwoo questions himself. He sighs. “I haven’t decided if I do or not yet, but I need to become one either way.”

“So, that’s why,” Seungcheol lowers his voice, “you didn’t go to combat school?”

“Combat schools cost money. If I had the skill, I could have made it there and here on my own, but I didn’t. So, yes. I couldn’t afford it and I lied to get here.”

“Is that- is this- all you want to change by becoming a hunter?”

“To change?”

“About yourself, or your life.”

“With training like this, something else will anyway, won’t it? I don’t know if there’s something I want to change, but something is bound to.”

“I guess so.”

 

Though Wonwoo didn’t feel exactly safe perched in a tree, he positions himself in yet another one, and took aim for a space a distance away. Wonwoo’s aim, he realizes, isn’t that bad to start with, but it took too much time. So he’d wait for his team to lead the monster into his line of fire.

What does he want to change? Wonwoo frowns as he waits, thinking. The only things he can think of are simple. His aim, his speed, his general ability, his relationship with his team members. He hopes that, at least, those things will improve- though some already aren’t bad- in the time he spends at the academy. But he knows that isn’t what Seungcheol meant.

Did he want to change as a person? Wonwoo sighs, shifting uncomfortably as holding up the gun’s weight starts to affect him. He can’t think of anything about himself he wants to change. Though he knows he’s not a perfect person, finding things he actively wants to be different is difficult. So, maybe, nothing? He knows things will change but he’s not here specifically to change them.

The monster stumbles into his line of fire, and he pulls the trigger with barely a moment’s hesitation. When the monster spins to face his direction- ready to come after him- its attention is drawn away by one of his teammates. Wonwoo sighs, raising his weapon so it’s aimed towards the sky he carefully moves himself into the tree next to him.

Their plan is working slowly, and that gives him more time, more than he really wants, to think.

When Wonwoo was younger, his parents had told him how wonderful hunters were. They were warriors who fought to protect people without asking anything from those people. It wasn’t until he was older that he realized hunters technically did get something in return, just not directly from the individual people they help. It made being one seem more like something to do if one wants money than something to do because they want to help people. In Wonwoo’s opinion, much more admirable were the people that worked in the field they wanted even if it didn’t pay as much.

Wonwoo admired his parents more than the hunters they admired. Still, if they thought so highly of hunters, it was easier to convince them to let him become one. They figured he wanted to help people, but he only really wanted to help them.

When thinking about it now, though, that doesn’t sound quite right. As he waits for his teammates to lead the monster back into his view, as he wonders if they’re safe, he doesn’t feel like it’s entirely true. Maybe he does want to help people. At the very least wants to help the people around him. Maybe he isn’t becoming a hunter for that, but once he is one, Wonwoo thinks actually actively doing hunter work might not be so bad.

Again, the monster enters his line of sight, and he fires. For the second time, it turns to him only to have its attention drawn away by one of his teammates.

 

Wonwoo frowns, worry working its way into his chest. He’s been sitting in wait for much longer than the other times, having seen no sign of the monster or his team in that time. Directly going against the plan isn’t something Wonwoo really wants to do, but he can’t help but feel like he should try to find them.

It’s as he decides to do just that, leaning to drop out of the tree, that one of his teammates return. Mingyu is out of breath and mumbles something incoherent.

“What?”

“Change in the plan, Seungcheol-” Mingyu takes a deep breath- “said to bring you somewhere else.”

“That’s not very specific.” Wonwoo mutters, but nods anyway. “Okay, let’s go then.”

“Right.”

 

It’s while they’re walking, that something occurs to Wonwoo. “Hey, did Seungcheol ask us all the same thing? Like, what we want to do as a hunter or want to change?”

“Oh.” Mingyu stumbles over himself, surprised by Wonwoo’s voice. “He asked you that too? I guess so then.”

“Huh,” Wonwoo hums. “I wonder why.”

‘What do you want to change?’ Wonwoo doesn’t know.

‘What do you want to do as a hunter?’ Wonwoo hadn’t planned to really act as a hunter, but he’s starting to think, maybe, that he wants to fight monsters. To act as a hunter and protect people.

“Probably to make us think about it? I mean… it got me to think about it more.”

“I guess so.” Wonwoo nods. It’s true, if the goal had been to get them to think, it worked. Wonwoo hadn’t ever thought about actually being a hunter. Only ever about what he would get for earning the right to be one.

They go separate ways, Wonwoo finding himself in yet another tree. What will he do as a hunter? Wonwoo can see the monster from where he is, spinning around in circles as it’s repeatedly attacked from one side, then the other. He focuses on that rather than the question still swimming around his head.

He has plenty of time to figure it out, anyway.


	18. To Be Better

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumlbr version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/149132199180/  
> beta read by the lovely jeonkwan (on ao3)

Seungcheol wasn’t going to pretend he was the best fighter or the best strategist. Still, he would do his best to lead his team to victory and keep them safe. That was his job, after all. Find their strengths, and make sure they can put them to use.

Asking them what they wanted to do and how they wanted to change was a part of that. Maybe some of it was his own desire to understand them. Even in ways that wouldn’t help them fight, Seungcheol wants to understand the people he will be stuck with for the rest of his time at the academy.

‘Is there something about you that you want to change?’ Seungcheol had asked them.

_“I hadn’t thought about it.”_ Mingyu.

_“I don’t know what will, but something will probably change.”_ Wonwoo.

_“I was hoping I could learn better here.”_ Hansol.

_“Yes,”_ Seungcheol had said, when Hansol returned the question back to him. It had been an immediate response. Seungcheol thinks about it now, while watching his team.

What does he hope will change?

 

In combat schools, there are a lot of students. That much is to be expected; lots of people want to be hunters without actually considering how hard the training will be. Eventually a large portion of them will drop out. Seungcheol hadn’t. Seungcheol had remained, knowing what he wanted to do.

Seungcheol wants to care for other people. It’s his goal to protect people once he’s a hunter, as it’s the closest thing to caring for others he thinks he’s suited for. Combat school’s training wasn’t going to scare him away.

While in combat school, Seungcheol found his own strengths and weaknesses. Though he wasn’t the strongest, he was strong enough. Though he wasn’t the smartest, he was smart enough. If an opponent was stronger than him, he’d be able to outsmart them, and the other way around. It was never both. Never was he better than his opponent in every way. Which was fine, Seungcheol tells himself it’s fine.

There’s something disappointing about always being ‘good enough’ but never ‘great’.

What does he want to change while he’s here? Seungcheol has a clear answer in his mind. To get stronger, to learn more. To be better than he is now.

 

Seungcheol’s plan- the newest version after they’d weakened the monster a lot already- isn’t complicated. There’s no need for anything complex against a monster with so little ability to think. If it’s weak enough, a blow to the inside of its head- where a brain would be, if monsters worked the same as living creatures- will kill it without the need to separate its head and body. They’d already done a lot of damage, they just have to keep striking until then.

Seungcheol finds himself not needing to do much. Of course he attacks, but his team doesn’t need his direction beyond the initial planning. He, himself, had thought that the last team’s final blow was anti-climatic, but that was nothing in comparison to his team, in his personal opinion.

Seungcheol strikes one of the monster’s legs with his weapon- a glaive- and then steps back, shocked. The monster actually topples over from his hit, and that’s sign enough that it will probably die to an attack directly to the head.

“Everyone back up.” They- Mingyu, and Hansol- do, leaving the area around the monster clear. With a  much lower chance that they’ll be hit if Wonwoo misses, Seungcheol calls out to Wonwoo to fire. He does, managing a shot to the monster’s head, effectively killing it.

“That went well,” Hansol says, as the monster turns to blue dust.

“Surprisingly so,” Seungcheol agrees. A second later, a smile breaks out onto his face. “We did it and everyone’s okay!”

“I’m going to take credit for the kill.” Wonwoo drops down from the tree and makes his way to them.

“I- I mean technically… but we did most of the work.” Mingyu frowns.

“I’m kidding.”

“So am I?”

“Are you asking?”

“Okay!” Hansol holds his hands up. “We did it! Let’s head back?”

“Yeah,” Seungcheol nods, “let’s go.”

“We won!” Mingyu gasps, like he only just realized.

“Yeah?”

“It hadn’t set in yet.”

“Still hasn’t for me.” Wonwoo looks down at the dust pile.

“So, I’m not the only one super exhausted, am I?” Hansol ignores the already happening conversation.

“No.” Seungcheol sighs. “I think we all are, so let’s head back so we can get rest sooner.”

 

When they return there isn’t much time to celebrate. Their professors call the students all together to speak to them.

“You’ve all done well,” One starts, “Tomorrow will be a less exciting day, unless you really dislike tests.”

“Tests?” Seungcheol mutters to himself.

“You should all get some rest,” The other professor speaks. “Tomorrow you’ll have your first day of regular classes, as well as a test- more so, a review- of things you learned at combat school.”

Seungcheol can practically feel the tension that flows from the majority of his peers. Once they’re on the ride back to the school, Seungcheol takes the time to think further.

What does he want to change about himself? If he’s honest, a lot. Seungcheol has a lot of things he can think to change in the coming years. But that can happen later. At the moment Mingyu is bouncing in his seat, working himself into an anxious panic, and Wonwoo is reciting monster types as if that’s all he knows about what he would have learned had he trained.

“Guys.” His team turns to him. “How about I go over as much as possible with you when we get back?”

Agreement- of varying levels of dramatic- are returned to him, and Seungcheol can’t help but smile. He’s decided on one more thing, he wants to become a good leader for his team.


	19. Cram Studying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/149322683195  
> Beta read by the lovely jeonkwon (on ao3)
> 
> This chapter is longer than most because it's a lot of information.

Combat school is roughly- if everything goes well- four years. Which meant they had four years of knowledge to cram into their teams heads in one night. Thus, the leaders all discussed what would be most important with each other before returning to their teams’ dorms.

“Aura and its uses are pretty important.” Seungcheol sighs, trying to remember what he’d learned in the last few years of his life.

“Crystals too,” Soonyoung adds.

“We should also mention souls, and monsters lack of them.” Jihoon uncurls a third finger, counting off the things they said.

“How about combat schools and hunter academies themselves?”

“The kingdoms!” Seungcheol sighs, purposefully loud. “I’m already forgetting what we’re saying, how am I supposed to teach them all this?”

“I have an idea.” Soonyoung grins. “Let’s trade teams.”

“What?”

“You mean… for each subject?” Jihoon lowers his hand.

“Exactly.” Soonyoung nods. “We’ll start with Aura, since I’m sure we’re all about the same when it comes to that. Then one of us will take each of the other subjects and rotate teams.”

“It’s not… a bad idea.”

“Souls are closely related to Aura. So, who wants to take the ‘soul and monsters lack of’ section?” Seungcheol asks, looking between the other two as if to say he doesn’t want to.

“I got A’s for that,” Soonyoung boasts.

“I actively use Crystals, so I might as well take that.” Jihoon shrugs. “Which leaves you with the schools and academies.”

“Okay,” Seungcheol nods. “We can start with our own teams, then.”

 

“Alright, answer as quickly as you can,” Seungcheol stands in front of his team, who are all sitting on the floor of their dorm. “What is Aura?”

“The manifestation of a soul!” Hansol raises his hand after answering instead of before. Seungcheol nods.

“What has Aura?”

“Every living thing.”

“Then don’t monsters?” Mingyu frowns.

Seungcheol shakes his head. “Except monsters.”

“Then monsters don’t have souls?” Wonwoo writes that down to help him remember it.

“No. Though you’ll hear more about that later. So, what does Aura do?”

Mingyu and Wonwoo both turn to Hansol, who shrugs. “I didn’t make it that far.”

“That’s right, you didn’t know before when I mentioned it.”

“Oh yeah when he was complaining about falling from that tree.” Wonwoo says, reminding them.

“At least I didn’t get stuck in one,” Hansol frowns.

“Hey,” Mingyu and Wonwoo both say, offended.

“Oh yeah, that happened to both of you.”

“Tree prison.” Mingyu mutters to himself.

“What?” Seungcheol asks, then decides he doesn’t want to know. “Never mind. Aura protects you, to some extent, if it’s unlocked. Hunters are able to make use of it, so they can handle more wounds while fighting monsters.”

“So… we need that, huh?” Hansol frowns.

“Yeah.”

 

Jihoon has taped a bunch of plain white papers to their wall, writing things down in a very teacher-esque fashion. “Some people, having unlocked their Aura, are able to use it to enhance their weapons.”

“What?” Seokmin mutters, “How does that work?”

“Aura had different properties for different people. Some are able to project theirs onto other things and people. As such making it harder to break their weapons while doing that.”

“Wouldn’t they just use Crystals?” Seungkwan asks, and raises his hand to get Jihoon’s attention.

“They could. But if it’s not their personal weapon, or they couldn’t afford to forge it with Crystals, then no.”

“You said ‘some people’, right?”

“Correct.”

“Then what are the other ways Aura can work?”

“Aura types include: Projecting, Strengthening, and Harming.” Jihoon writes those on the papers.

“Harming?” Jeonghan mutters, “Isn’t it supposed to be something that protects?”

“Aura is part of the soul, what it does is pretty loosely defined,” Jisoo shrugs.

“How do you know that?”

“Well, my parents taught me some things before they realized I shouldn’t be a hunter.”

“I explained projecting,” Jihoon draws their attention back to him, “but the others aren’t that hard to figure out.”

“But you said projecting was used to strengthen other things, so what’s strengthening?” Seungkwan looks genuinely distressed at his own lack of understanding.

“Projecting means you can use your Aura on other things, which automatically strengthens them in the way Aura automatically protects us.” Jihoon points to the word ‘projecting’ for emphasis. His hand moves to point at strengthening before he speaks again. “But strengthening means you can purposefully use your aura more like armor, even focusing it more in one place than another. Or, making it stronger around, say, your hand so you hit harder.”

“Cool.”

“Aura punches,” Seokmin mumbles.

“Aura punches.” Seungkwan repeats, laughing.

“And, harming?” Jeonghan asks, while those two laugh about ‘aura punches’. It wasn’t even that funny, he thinks.

“Should we be concerned how much you want to know about that?” Jisoo mutters, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“I just want to learn.”

“Harming,” Jihoon starts, “is the ability to turn one’s Aura into something physically harmful. To others, not oneself.”

“Why did you change from _your_ to _one’s_ in your explanation?” Jisoo asks.

“So Jeonghan doesn’t get any ideas.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone!” Jeonghan throws his arms up in exasperation.

 

Soonyoung glances down at the textbook in his lap as he sits in a circle with the rest of his team. “Any questions?”

“Yeah,” Chan nods, “How do you unlock an Aura?”

“Intensive training, like you would have gotten at combat school. Or we hang you upside down for three hours.”

“What?!”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not true,” Minghao mutters.

“You’re right, it’s not. Someone with theirs unlocked can unlock yours.” Soonyoung explains. Everyone look expectantly at him. “What? Oh, yeah, sure. We can do that later, it takes a lot out of a person and we’ve already done enough today, not to mention doing this now.”

“So, how do you know what type of Aura you have?” Jun asks.

“Well there are two ways.” Soonyoung closes his book, realizing he doesn’t need it. “One, deemed the old way, is is through more training and practice until you figure out what you’re capable of. The second is newer, Aura testers. Invented… I want to say sometime in the last century? They’ll just straight up tell you.”

“Can we get ahold of one? “ Minghao asks. It seemed to him like they wouldn’t be something that wasn’t just readily available.

“Yes.” Jun is the one the answer, instead of Soonyoung. “At least back home I’d seen them in stores. Expensive, but still, they were there.”

“Yeah, but do any of us have money for that?”

“One of us doesn’t have to,” Soonyoung starts, clapping his hands together as an idea hits him, “There are thirteen of us, together we can probably get enough.”

“Thirteen?” Chan raises an eyebrow and his face twists into confusion.

“All three teams would need it, but only one is needed.” Soonyoung grins. “Anyway, first things first. Anymore Aura questions?”

“I don’t have any.”Jun shakes his head.

“Nope.” Minghao shrugs.

“None.” Chan answers, leaning back on his hands.

“Then, next you’ll see… one of the other leaders about another topic.”

 

Seungcheol, Jihoon, and Soonyoung meet in the hallway all of their dorms are in.

“So, how did that go?” Seungcheol asks, glancing at the other two. “And who’s going where next?”

“Fine. We should just go counter clockwise of where our rooms are, until we get back to our own.” Jihoon answers,

Soonyoung nods. “Yeah, that’ll work.”

“So, I’m off to Soonyoung’s team, then.” Seungcheol says, his way of agreeing.

“Be nice to them!”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Seungcheol gasps, mocking offense.

“Hey,” Soonyoung ignores the question, “Where did Jihoon go?”

There’s a pause. “He already left to my team, I guess.”

“Not even a goodbye.”

 

“Alright kids,” Jihoon starts, pointing a pen at the three in front of him, “anyone have paper? And tape?”

“Kids?” Wonwoo mutters.

“Paper? Tape?” Hansol, too, mutters.

“Yes,” Mingyu’s tone is confused, but he nods. “You need it?”

“Yes.” Jihoon nods. There’s a full minute of set up, where Jihoon tapes the papers to the wall. “Alright, now we can start.”

“Kids?” Wonwoo whispers, again.

“Are you still caught up on that?” Mingyu laughs, plopping back down onto the floor next to his teammates.

“I am not a child.”

“Crystals.” Jihoon speaks, loudly and without warning, to draw their attention. “What are they?”

“Um… crystals?” Mingyu answers, unsure of himself.

“Yes, but… what are they?”

“Crystals are crystal-like stones that… um… are magic?” Hansol mumbles the end of his sentence.

“Magic is real?” Wonwoo questions, looking unconvinced.

“Despite having the ability to detect Aura and its type as well as Crystals, we haven’t figured out the science behind them yet. So, yes, technically magic.” Jihoon answers, sighing.

“Wait, if Aura- for some people- can be made into other stuff by them, then are there people that don’t need Crystals to use, say, electricity?” Mingyu asks, raising his hand.

“Those with harming types can turn Aura into elements, in some cases, yes. However that’s entirely based on the person, and less common that just creating something solid from their Aura, so Crystals are still greatly useful.”

“So if someone had that ability, they wouldn’t keep Crystals around, huh.”

“No, probably not.” Jihoon nods. “Why?”

“Huh, no reason.” Mingyu shakes his head, dismissing the question.

“Sure… so, anything else?”

“If they’re so useful, why aren’t Crystals super expensive?” Wonwoo asks.

“They’re not hard to find. Crystals might not be living but they do grow in a way similar to plants. Over walls and anything else they can. Anywhere that there are Crystals now, there will be more of later, so they’re in large supply.” Jihoon reaches into a pocket and pulls out a blue bullet from his pocket, tossing it at them. “Can you tell me how Crystals are used?”

“Um.” Hansol catches it, barely, before finding the words to answer. “Either in their normal form, or mixed into raw materials, right?”

“If you have them as your weapon, but that’s made with Crystals too.” Jihoon motions to the item in Hansol’s hands.

“So they replace the gunpowder?” Wonwoo takes it from Hansol, frowning as he turns the bullet around in his hand.

“Not quite. It’s mixed with the powder. They’re both in there.”

“So, they’re turned into powder and mixed with it?” Mingyu sighs. “Then how do they work?”

“Well, to start with, the bullet is actually just the top there. The part which will hit something. The powder and Crystal dust, is burnt by the time it leaves the gun. So why do the Crystals still have an affect?” Jihoon turns to the paper-covered wall, drawing a rough diagram of the full bullet.

“I’m just more confused,” Mingyu mutters, eyebrows scrunching together.

“It doesn’t make sense.” Wonwoo examines the bullet in his hand closer, despite it doing nothing to help him understand.

“Magic.” Hansol nods to himself.

“Element Crystals have delayed effects. While the kind people mix into materials to make them stronger are always ‘on’ or actively doing so, elemental Crystals react to something else and release their energy in the form of whatever element.”

“But I’ve seen those Crystals react when they hit something, not after.” Mingyu frowns.

“The time between isn’t that long, if it’s a pure Crystal. But this is powder, refined to mix with something else, meaning the time is longer. The powder is affecting the actual bullet part-” Jihoon points to the top of the bullet in his drawing, “the reaction is delayed so it, in most cases, doesn’t happen until a few seconds before or after the bullet hits something. It’s because Crystals’ energy travels outward from whatever it’s affecting, that causes it to seemingly affect what was hit.”

“Alright,” Hansol throws his hands up. “I’m confused.”

“So- if it wasn’t powder, it would be like hitting the bullet with a Crystal and then throwing it at something quickly enough that it hasn’t affected it yet?” Wonwoo tries to work through the explanation.

“Yes,” Jihoon nods. “This got a little off track though. I just meant to use it as a way to tell you that element Crystals have delayed reactions, by using an example of something that takes more time.”

“So, say I wanted to make elemental arrows,” Mingyu starts, “It would still be delayed, just like Crystal-using bullets?”

“Right.”

“Why not just make the bullets out of Crystal entirely?” Wonwoo asks, tossing the bullet back to Jihoon who, just barely, catches it.

“They wouldn’t fire, for one. Even if they did they’d be affecting the gun because that would be the only thing for its energy to latch onto. Thus, you’d blow yourself up, or freeze yourself, or any other number of things.”

“Noted,” Wonwoo nods, making a mental reminder not to try that. “So what type of crystals are there?”

“Strengthening, Elemental, Absorbing. They’re pretty self-explanatory. Except Absorbing Crystals, which draw energy from other things, like a monster’s, Aura, or real life examples of elements. Which will turn them into one of the other two. And I don’t know how that works before you ask, I’m not an expert.”

 

Soonyoung sits in another floor circle- this time with Jihoon’s team- rolling a pen around in his hand. “So, you already know everything with a soul has aura, right?”

“I thought it was any living thing, like, even plants?” Seungkwan mumbles, frowning.

“Plants have souls.”

“Why do I suddenly feel really bad about salad.” Seokmin frowns.

“Souls don’t equate to consciousnesses, if that helps?” Soonyoung offers, putting a hand on Seokmin’s shoulder.

“But aren’t monsters alive?” Jisoo asks, tilting his head. “They don’t have souls.”

“Or an Aura,” Jeonghan adds.

“Right. They’re the only exception. Do you know why?” Soonyoung nods.

“They’re secretly dust monsters,” Seungkwan mutters, suspicion lacing his tone.

“They do turn into dust.” Seokmin gasps.

“Oh yeah, definitely, but that’s not why. It’s the same reason they turn into dust, though.” Soonyoung laughs.

“They have that energy, too, that isn’t Aura.” Jeonghan says to himself, thinking.

“They can’t produce an Aura, but they have that energy, so is that what they have in place of a ‘soul’ or in place of Aura?” Jisoo asks, blank paper in hand like he’s waiting to write the answer down.

“You say that like Aura and a soul are two totally different things. Aura is a part of the soul. But yes, that’s right, they have that energy instead of either of those things.” Soonyoung smiles.

“Then what is it?” Jeonghan mutters, frowning.

“The energy? It’s called Luos.”

“You’re making that up.” Jeonghan shakes his head, unbelieving.

“I wish.” Soonyoung laughs. “Humans didn’t exactly pull out the big guns of naming for this.”

“It’s just Soul backwards!” Jeonghan throws his hands up. “This is ridiculous.”

“Hey, it could be spelled different,” Jisoo argues.

“No, it’s spelled that way.” Soonyoung laughs at the almost disgusted expression that forms on Seungkwan’s face.

“Really?” Seungkwan asks, incredulous.

“Yep.”

“What actually makes it different than a soul?” Jisoo brings the conversation back around to the information they actually need to be learning.

“If I remember correctly…” Soonyoung trails off, humming in thought.

“If you remember? We’re going to fail.” Jeonghan sighs.

“Hey, I aced this subject… two years ago.”

“I’m going to get kicked out of school!” Seokmin cries dramatically, putting his face into his hands.

“Hey!” Soonyoung kicks him. “I remember fine, okay! As I was saying, Luos is unable to create an Aura. It also exists in a way that allows us to see it, where as a soul can only be seen in the form of Aura.”

“You sound like you’re reading a textbook.” Seungkwan says.

“I memorized that section of the textbook. Well, not word for word, but close enough.”

“So,” Seokmin draws their attention, holding up a hand, “does that mean monsters are actually alive?”

“In a way. Not like anything else, though. They don’t eat or absorb nutrients at all. They don’t do anything, really. They only attack because there’s something to attack, not with real purpose.   
Larger ones- which have lived longer- are capable of some amount of intelligence, but they’re still unable to tell how much damage they’re taking when attacked.”

“But they know when they’re hurt, don’t they?” Seokmin asks.

“No. They know when they’re being attacked, and they attack back, but they don’t know that they’re hurt. Hence why they never run away. An animal will run if it’s in danger, a monster won’t.”

 

Seungcheol joins the three in front of him sitting on the floor before speaking. “So, I feel like there won’t be a lot to say about this, but let’s talk about the combat schools and hunter’s academies.”

“Don’t we know most of this already? How much can you say about them we don’t know?” Minghao frowns.

“Not much, probably.” Seungcheol can’t argue, they probably already know most of what they need to. “So, let’s start with figuring out if there is anything. Do you know why combat school costs money, while hunter’s academies don’t?”

“That’s easy,” Jun raises his hand despite not waiting for their attention before speaking, “because they want to be more respected.”

“Tuition makes them look more important.” Minghao rolls his eyes at the thought.

“So, why don’t they allow you to fight monsters, even though they used to?” Seungcheol asks them, though his tone sounds like he’s explaining rather than questioning.

“It wouldn’t look good if they took money from students just to let said students die.” Chan frowns. “So they just let them beat each other up instead.”

“It’s easier to make that the responsibility of an individual student rather than the school as a whole.”

“Besides, they only allow that in matches,” Minghao mutters, bitterness lacing his tone.

“Ah, right. So, then, why don’t hunter’s academies have a tuition?” Seungcheol speaks again.

“The world needs more hunters, and if they could graduate combat school they know the risks well enough.” Jun answers.

“It’s also possible to get into a hunter’s academies the same way as combat school: raw talent. Though you’d need to have so much raw talent that you are on the same level as combat school graduates, which almost never happens.”

“Once like, every hundred years, right?” Chan mumbles, unsure.

“That’s about right.” Seungcheol nods. “Do you know why the Eastern Kingdom has the most of both combat schools and hunter’s academies?”

“Actually, no.” Minghao seems to only just be realizing it. “I hadn’t thought about it.”

“The Eastern Kingdom has like five hunter’s academies, right? And even more combat schools.” Chan leans back, reaching for a book. Once he grabs it, he opens the front, which has a map. “I was right. Five academies and six combat schools.”

“But the Western Kingdom only has one of each, and the Southern Kingdom only has two of each.” Seungcheol adds, without needing to glance at the map.

“The Northern Kingdom has four combat schools and three academies, but that’s still less than here,” Jun adds, frowning. “But we also have a larger kingdom.”

“We?”

“Oh, I mean the Northern Kingdom does.”

“Isn’t the Southern Kingdom actually the largest though?” Minghao leans over to look at the map. “It looks like it, at least.”

“I can’t remember, but at the very least the Eastern Kingdom is smaller than them both.” Seungcheol brings their attention back to him. “So,, why do we have the largest culture of raising hunters?”

“More monsters?” Chan’s answer comes out as a question more than anything.

“We’re bordered by larger amounts of forest, as well as water to the north, meaning more monsters to start with, but there’s another reason that you’re right.”

“So it is monsters?” Jun asks.

“Yes.”

“Is there something here they’re attracted to, then?”

“People.”

“But there are more people in the Northern Kingdom.” Minghao mutters, frowning.

“Yes, but the Northern Kingdom has a wall facing their only area of forest, as well as having an academy positioned right on the border where they face water.”

“Meaning they don’t need as many hunters because they already have more defenses and less monsters to start with?” Chan looks up from the book in his hands when he speaks.

“Right! The Eastern Kingdom has academies near the borders, yes, but we’re bordered by so much monster filled land to start with that it’s not enough without much more hunters than the Northern Kingdom.”

“So really the only reason more well-known hunters come out of this kingdom is because more hunters do in general,” Jun huffs. “Good to know.”

“Disappointed?” Minghao laughs. “You should have figured as much.”

“Maybe.”

Once each leader returns to their own dorm- after having given the information to the other two teams- they explain their assigned subject to their own teams before letting everyone get some rest. Hopefully, their teammates remember everything they need to.

Some of them study a bit more, some go to sleep and just hope, some try to fall asleep while going over information in their heads, but in the end everyone falls asleep only to get barely any rest before the next day begins.


	20. Tests and Teams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr version: http://iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/152282293900/hunters-lies-and-leaders-20
> 
> Beta read by Jeonkwon (on ao3) yet again!

When morning comes, there’s an air of exhaustion that follows all of the first year students. Exhaustion, alongside the tension and worry that came with their uncertainty about the upcoming test. Groups separate to complain to each other, or test each other, before class begins and they would have no more chances.

Seungkwan, Seokmin, Hansol, and Chan go to asking each other questions, going in a circle to make sure they remember. Wonwoo and Jisoo are both hunched over textbooks. Jeonghan, Mingyu, and Minghao are mumbling to themselves. Junhui is tapping a pen against his face while staring at the ceiling. All while Jihoon, Seungcheol, and Soonyoung share worried looks, wondering if everyone will be okay.

A bell rings, leading them all to fall into a seat, if they aren’t already. The classroom reminds them more of a lecture hall than it does of a normal high school classroom, but still, one of their professors- a stout man wearing a frown- comes in to stand at the front of the room. He briefly reminds them that they’ll taking a test, as if they don’t already know, before separating them as far apart as possible from each other as the room will allow, then hands out the test.

The test isn’t particularly hard, at least not for the students who took combat school lessons. There’s nervous tapping and mumbled _what’s_ under breaths that are worrying for the leaders, but it’s not like there’s anything more they can do now.

It feels like an eternity of waiting before everyone finishes their tests. Their professor collects them, sets them all on his desk, and then addresses them.

“You’ve all had a long first couple of days, and I need to look over these, so you can have the rest of the day to yourselves.”

 

“There are three types of crystals right?” Seungkwan grabs the person nearest to him.

“Yeah,” Hansol nods. “That thing monsters have is called Lous right?”

“Guys,” Seungcheol interrupts their worried mutual questionings, along with drawing everyone’s attention to him. “Listen, worrying about it now isn’t going to fix anything if you did get something wrong. Take a break, none of you look like you slept at all.”

The reminder that they hadn’t rested seems to make them ten times more tired. Slouching or yawning, everyone silently agrees that they were worn out.

Jihoon collects his team; meaning he grabs Jeonghan and Jisoo- the closest to him- and drags them along while motioning for the remainder. “Come on, there’s a required minimum hours of sleep for my team.” His statement is finished with a yawn, which causes more yawns from the others.

“Since when?” Seungkwan mutters, but follows.

“It’s been two days, I haven’t set all the rules yet.”

Soonyoung, usually a ball of energy himself, seems to be just as exhausted as the others, telling his team something similar. Seungcheol figures he should follow suit, and does so as well.

In the end, everyone ends up back in their dorms. Most asleep, if they can get past stress, or trying to be if not.

Seungcheol isn’t as tired as he feels he should be. Though the thought he might not have taught his teammates- and the others, even- well enough swells in his mind. What did good teachers do?

A man with proud eyes and a familiar voice fills Seungcheol’s mind, he should know what teachers are like. As a laugh comes out under his breath, he wonders if his teaching methods would meet those of his father’s.

“What’s funny?” Hansol, across the room from him, on the other bottom bunk bed, raises an eyebrow when he looks up from a book.

“Are you, studying again? Hansol…”

“I’ll stress more if I don’t check.”

“Ah.”

“So?”

“Oh,” Seungcheol sits up, “my father. He’s a teacher- used to teach here actually- so I was thinking about that.” When he says it aloud, the humor in it doesn’t match with his own thoughts, but Hansol nods anyway.

“So he was a hunter?”

“Well, he trained to be one. But decided he liked teaching more, I guess. He started teaching at another school, so he was closer to our home, a few years before I went to combat school.”

“Is that why you wanted to be a hunter?” Hansol finally puts the textbook down, closing it, to give Seungcheol his full attention.

“The tables have turned,” Seungcheol gasps, hand moving to clutch his chest. It’s only a second, then he smiles and drops his hand back down. “Not really? I just wanted to, I don’t know, do good? To help people? This just seemed like the option I would do best at. My father… I barely thought of him as a hunter. I don’t think he ever called himself one, either, now that I think about it.”

“What about your mom?”

“What about your parents?” Seungcheol asks, in return. Without actually waiting for a response, he answers for himself first. “My mom bakes. Well, she used to work at a weapons shop, but stopped. Actually, she sent me off with an outrageous number of cookies, and promised to send more. Speaking of, want a cookie?”

“Sure?” Seungcheol laughs at Hansol’s response before reaching over and under his bed to where his suitcase is. “My dad works at a store that sells Crystals, and my mom paints.”

“Paints?” Seungcheol tosses a container filled with chocolate-chip cookies and drops back down onto his bed. Hansol fumbles and barely manages to catch it.

“Yep. Flowers, mostly. Sometimes people if she feels like it. She painted me and I was really tempted to bring the painting with me, but it was too big.”

“No offense, but I’m glad we don’t have a huge painting of you on the wall.”

“I’m hurt.” Hansol laughs.

“And I’m tired,” A voice from above informs. Wonwoo leans over the side of his bunk, frowning at them. Well, at Seungcheol, since Hansol is directly under him and out of view. “And hungry.”

“None of us really ate today,” Seungcheol realizes, as Hansol stuffs a cookie in his mouth.

“Should we head to the other building for food?” Hansol asks, closing the cookie container.

“If you’re more hungry than tired, yeah.”

“I am,” Wonwoo mutters. There’s a shuffling that follows, before Wonwoo drops down from his bunk.

“Same here.” Hansol sets the container aside, and stands up. “Should we leave Mingyu a note?”

“Mingyu is awake,” Mingyu says, “So no.”

“Are you staying?” Seungcheol stands, and turns around to face Mingyu’s bunk.

“Yeah.”

“Would you like us to bring you back food?”

“If possible, I wouldn’t argue with food.”

The school consists of four buildings. Two for different types of classes, one for dorms, and one for supplies the students may need. Anything from food courts to supplies for weapons, it’s all there on one of the floors, thus making that building arguably the largest. Some argue the dorms are but Seungcheol begs to differ.

While he and his teammates stuff their faces with food, sitting in said building, Seungcheol thinks about how much he’s learned about them- though he knows there’s still a lot he doesn’t know- and how much closer they are. It’s only been a few days, their first year has barely started, and he’s already grown attached to his team and seen how much potential they have.

“Hey,” Seungcheol starts, waiting until they face him to continue, “you guys did really well yesterday, I don’t know if I said that.”

“We did?” Wonwoo tilts his head, pauses, then smiles. “Thanks.”

“Well of course we did!” Despite saying it, Hansol looks genuinely happy and surprised at Seungcheol’s words.

“Remind me to tell Mingyu that, too.” Seungcheol smiles as well, seeing their reactions.

“No promises.”

They have the potential to make a great team, Seungcheol decides.


	21. Lies And Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/152794048625/
> 
> Beta read by the lovely jeonkwon (on ao3)

Jihoon wakes to a sound reminiscent of scratching. It takes a minute for him to register it’s the sound of pen on paper, and even longer still to be awake enough to open his eyes. Finally aware enough, he turns over in his bed and glances at the bunk above the one across from him. He can see Seungkwan writing, before crossing out whatever it is he wrote, and writing again. It’s after four times, that Jihoon sighs and sits up.

“Seungkwan? What are you doing?” Jihoon asks, stretching his arms out. Seungkwan lets out a startled noise, before glancing down at Jihoon.

“Oh, trying to write to my mom. She wanted me to keep her up to date with how school is for me but… well I can’t exactly tell her the truth, you know?” It takes a short moment for Jihoon to remember Seungkwan wasn’t supposed to be here, as far as any rule would say, then he nods.

“Just be really vague.”

“I don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m not good at that.”

“Fair enough.” Jihoon pushes himself to his feet, and makes his way to the other side of the room. Lifting himself to stand on one of the ladder rungs leading up to the other’s bed, he looks at the paper in Seungkwan’s hands. “How about I tell you how my first days of combat school went, and you can embellish to make it sound like you from there.”

“Huh?” Seungkwan blinks, once, twice, then slowly nods. “Sure, yeah.”

“You’re that surprised?”

“You’re helping me lie.”

“What? Do I not seem the type? I’m already letting you lie, remember?”

“Oh,” Seungkwan mutters, frowning. “I guess that’s true.”

“If anything, I don’t expect _you_ to lie.”

“I don’t. I’m not really… good at lying. So I never did. At least until recently.”

“When will she expect the letter?”

Seungkwan pauses, tilts his head in thought. “Probably next week? At the latest.”

“From here to the edge of the kingdom right?” Seungkwan nods. “So you have a week, we can work on it later.”

“Okay.” Seungkwan nods again, then grins. “Thanks.”

“You guys are awake?” Jisoo’s voice startles Jihoon enough for him to jump off of the ladder. Quickly, Jihoon spins to see if he woke up Seokmin or Jeonghan. Seokmin is still asleep, but Jeonghan is already sitting up in his bed, reading something.

“Most of us,” Jeonghan is the one to respond, not looking up.

“Most?” Seungkwan leans over his bed, to look down at the bunk under him. He’s dangerously close to falling over, so Jihoon moves out of his possible landing range. Rather than falling over, Seungkwan pulls himself back up, grabs a pillow, and aggressively throws it at Seokmin. “Wake up!”

“Excessive,” Jisoo mutters, shaking his head as Seokmin wakes with a startled noise.

“Why?!”

“Good morning,” Seungkwan sing-songs, grinning.

“It’s still dark out,” Jeonghan points in the direction of the window, sitting on their wall between the bunk beds.

“Morning,” Jihoon confirms, pointing at the clock on the wall. Three in the morning.

“This is inhumane.” Seokmin turns over and presses his face into his pillow.

“He has a point.” Jisoo, despite his words, climbs down from his bunk. “What were we talking about?”

“Lying,” Jeonghan says, closing his book and stretching. He lets out a yawn, followed by more from everyone else.

“Are we lying?”

“Jisoo… we lied to get into school.”

“Oh, right.”

“Speaking of lying,” Jihoon gains their attention again, “do any of you need to lie to your parents while we’re at it?”

“I’m trying not to talk to them at all, actually.” Jeonghan shakes his head. “Thanks though.”

“Me too.” Jisoo frowns. “I don’t think I’d be any help either, but if I would be, I’m here.”

“Seokmin?” Jihoon turns around, to face said boy. Seokmin just continues to lay face-down, but reacts just enough that Jihoon knows he isn’t asleep. “Don’t ignore me.”

“Ow.” Seokmin turns over when Jihoon kicks him in the side. Jihoon frowns, he hadn’t even kicked him hard. “No, no, I’m fine.”

“Okay.” Jihoon glances at the clock again, frowning. “You guys should go back to sleep, though. Even if tomorrow is the weekend. Well… today I guess.”

“Why? Are we training on the weekend?” Jeonghan raises an eyebrow.

“We should, at least,” Jihoon pauses, thinking out his words, “unlock one of your auras.”

“One of?”

“It takes a toll on the person who does the unlocking, right?” Jisoo frowns. “Right now, Jihoon is the only here who can too.”

“Oh, right. Just one of us, then.”

“Who’s first?” Seungkwan leans over his railing, again, to look down at them.

“Stop leaning so far you’ll hurt yourself.” Jihoon says, then hums, considering. “Right now, Seokmin probably needs it the most.”

“He does?” Seungkwan sounds sort of disappointed, and Jihoon frowns at him.

“He’s going to be defensive, so being able to take hits is really important for him. As for the rest of you…”

“Yeah?”

“We should figure out some rough ideas about your weapons. Right now they work, but they’re not hunter’s weapons. When we start going up against stronger monsters, they won’t do much.”

“I’m not sure that there’s much you can do to a sword?” Jeonghan raises an eyebrow.

“Let’s start coming up with ideas then!” Seungkwan jumps down- Jihoon glares at him for it- with a loud thud. “Planning time!”

“It’s three in the morning.”

“Perfect time.”

“Seungkwan,” Jihoon starts, getting his attention, “you should focus on figuring out your own weapon.”

“I already know what I want to do, though.”

“What’s that?”

“Crystals.”

“To the arrows or the bow itself?”

“Arrows.” Seungkwan nods, as if confirming this to himself. “After learning more about them, I have ideas.”

“Um,” Jisoo interrupts, “I actually just want to strengthen my sword. And fix the grip, so it’s easier to hold two-handed.”

‘Noted.” Jihoon nods.

“Didn’t you say you had ideas for my weapon?” Seokmin asks, sitting up in his bed.

“I do. You’ll probably be out of commission right after unlocking your aura, though, so we can get to that later.”

“Okay.”

“We can do a little planning now, though!” Seungkwan reaches under Seokmin’s bed- since both of their belongings are under there- and finds paper amongst his things.

“What part of rest didn’t make sense?” Jihoon sighs.

“Rest is for the weak.”

“And the old.” Jeonghan’s words are followed by him rolling over in his bed. “Goodnight.”

“Did you call yourself old?” Jisoo raises an eyebrow at him.

“Old and beautiful.”

“Alright…”

“If you’re not sleeping, at least be quiet.” Jihoon sits beside Seungkwan and Seokmin, who have huddled around the paper and sit on Seokmin’s bed.

“Are you also telling yourself?” Jisoo stretches. “I’m going to find out if I can still buy food at three in the morning.”

“You should be able to.” Jihoon ignores the question.

“I’m going to assume you’re all hungry and just ignoring it,” There’s noises of agreement, “I’ll bring back some food for you.”

“Thanks!” Seokmin and Seungkwan chime as Jisoo leaves the dorm.

 

“So,” Jihoon leans forward, elbows on his knees, “what kind of crystals do you want to use, Seungkwan?”

“Well, at least one element,” Seungkwan holds up his index finger, “and a few arrows should just be strengthened, in case I can’t or shouldn’t use that element.”

“Oh.” Jihoon laughs. “That was basically my original plan, except with bullets, when I was designing my weapon.”

“This must mean something,” Seokmin mock-whispers, acting surprised.

“Clearly.” Seungkwan grins, “I don’t know what element would be best to use, though.”

“I think you should choose whatever you feel suited to use.” Jihoon shrugs, “I went with ice and fire because the effects they have worked well with how I wanted to fight.”

“What do you mean?”

“Fire weakens monsters’ skin, as well as making a pretty obvious target if someone else needs to aim for that spot. Ice, on the other hand, makes things both harder and easier to break. If someone I was working with was strong enough, or had the right tools to break through the ice, it would make breaking the monster’s body easier, too. If really need be, it can also create makeshift walls. I don’t plan to be up close to monsters very often, so that seemed to fit me the best.”

“You thought that out a lot. I was sort of hoping you would just say they look cool.”

“They do look cool, but that’s a bonus.”

“Well… I don’t know much about what elements there actually are. Or how they work. Or what works for me.” Seungkwan sighs.

“Want my recommendations?”

“Yeah.”

“With a bow, and how you’ll most likely be fighting, I’d say ice, wind, or electricity.” Jihoon looks around for a writing utensil, spotting the pen Seokmin is rolling around in his hands, and take it from him before writing each of the words on the paper between them.

“Teacher Jihoon is back.”

“I’ll throw this at you.” Jihoon mutters, then draws a rough image of an arrow. “Electricity is at the bottom of the list, because you might need to be too close to use it, even if it is a bow.”

“I can always have more than one element?”

“You can.”

“Then what’s at the top of the list?”

“Wind. So even if you miss, you can still do damage. And if you hit your target, you’ll inflict some under the skin, as well.”

“It’s… basically outward force then?”

Jihoon pauses, blinks at Seungkwan, and nods. He didn’t expect Seungkwan to put that together. Maybe, he thinks, he’s not giving Seungkwan enough credit. “Right.”

“And I know about ice.”

“So?” Seokmin is the one to ask, watching Seungkwan’s face intently.

“I think, wind and electricity. More ones with wind, though.”

“We’ll have to get you some crystals, and I’ll teach you to put them into your arrows without using them on yourself.” Jihoon nods, putting the pen down.

“Now me?” Seokmin grins, expectant.

“Now you.” Jihoon nods. “We should first strengthen your sword and shield. Also, I have another idea, but in the end it’s your choice.”

“What is it?”

“We embed it with absorbing crystals, too.”

“Why?” Seokmin tilts his head.

“So if you do get hit, or if the plan uses it, you could have a weapon that temporarily has an element or even just pure energy to hit a monster with.”

“Cool.” Seokmin claps his hands together. “Then if I get stronger I could protect someone from an attack and then attack back, even if just a little.”

“Exactly.”

“I think it suits you,” Seungkwan adds.

“I like it!” Seokmin nods to himself.

“You’re… weirdly okay with the idea of being attacked. Considering your reaction to our first hunt.” Jihoon frowns.

“Well… yeah. I don’t like the idea, but if I’m going to be a hunter it’s going to happen. So… I need to prepare for it!”

“Huh.” Jihoon laughs, “Okay.”

Maybe he wasn’t giving either of them enough credit. Seungkwan and Seokmin go to talking more about their weapons, and Jihoon finds himself smiling. He shouldn’t doubt them so much, not just Seungkwan and Seokmin, but all of them. Jihoon hadn’t realized, but he was thinking of them as people he has to take care of. Sure, he’s their leader, but Jihoon realizes he can’t act like they’ll never be able to act on their own.

Eventually they’ll graduate, and they won’t need him. Jihoon has to believe in them now, he has to treat them like they’re smart and strong, or else it will mess that future up for them. Especially since he’s not planning to really be a hunter.

Jihoon stares down at the papers, however, unfocused. That’s right, he thinks, he’s not going to be a hunter. It’s a strange thought. Jihoon was thinking of them as people he’d always need to lead, but was planning- before he’d ever met them- to leave them behind.

Frowning, Jihoon sighs to himself. Even worse, he doesn’t want to.

“Jihoon?” Seokmin calls out. “Are you okay?”

“Still tired.” Jihoon isn’t really lying, but it’s not the truth either. “Sorry.”

“You should go back to sleep,” Seungkwan says, crossing his arms with a nod. “We’ve got this covered.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sure.” Jihoon stands to make his way back to his own bed. “Goodnight. Wake me when Jisoo is back with food.”

“Sure!”

Jihoon wants to be their leader. Dropping into his bed, he buries his face into his pillows. Jihoon doesn’t _want_ to want that.


	22. Hope of Change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumlbr version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/154033682490/
> 
> beta read by the lovely jeonkwan (on ao3)

Soonyoung wakes from dreams of his family to the smell of food. Blinking into awareness, he sits up in his bed and looks down at the floor where his team has apparently set up a display of food between them.

“You guys are up?”

“It’s six already.” Junhui motions to the clock on the wall, then to the food. “Are you going to join us?”

“Yeah.” Soonyoung crawls over to the ladder, and climbs down. Sitting next to Junhui, Soonyoung scans the food, then looks to his team. “When did you guys get up?”

“Three?” Minghao hums, trying to remember. “Junhui was already up when I woke up. Chan at about five.”

“I didn’t wake up that much earlier,” Junhui admits, shrugging. “We were going to wait for you to get up to get food, but figured this worked just as well.”

“I appreciate the thought,” Soonyoung says, and he really means it. It’s been a while, he realizes, since he’s had a meal that wasn’t prepared in haste,  something to make sure he ate more than to enjoy. The warmth and smells of the food- though simply rice and pork- reminds him of home.

The smell of the same foods drifting from the kitchen of his home when he was a child, noting his father’s cooking and bringing Soonyoung away from playing in the living room, are prominent in his memory. Time spent with either of his parents- even when his mother was, more often than not, too busy to be home- are always prominent memories, filled with warmth either from the things around them, or from his parents themselves. Their unwavering support, despite differing amounts of time spent with him each day, shown through in bigger parts of his memories- with his dreams and them changing- as well as smaller things like this. So his team’s small action means a lot to him.

All of the important people to Soonyoung have known each other. His parents and his closest friends in the past knew each other, even when his parents stopped asking to meet his every single friend. Them knowing that the people he was closest to are good people, was something he wanted. In general, he wanted people to know his friends are good people, but it’s especially true when it comes to his parents.

Soonyoung’s parents are a doctor and a stay at home parent, respectively. When Soonyoung told them he wanted to dance, they supported him. When Soonyoung told them he’d changed his mind, that he wanted to be a hunter, they supported him despite their worries, so Soonyoung dreams of introducing them to his team. Hopes- believes- that they will support his want to stay with, and lead, them just as they have everything else.

Now, as his team tries to decide if it’s worth it to try and save the remaining food after they’ve eaten most of it, Soonyoung thinks more about a possible meeting. About how long it would be until that is possible, about how much might change by then. It’s only been a few days, and he already feels like a lot has changed.

“Soonyoung?”

“Huh?” Looking up at Minghao, Soonyoung realizes he’s the only one still sitting on the ground. “What’s up?”

“What are we doing today?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s the weekend,” Chan reminds him, from across the room, “so shouldn’t we do something? We all have a lot to catch up on…”

“Oh, you’re right.” Soonyoung stands, stretches out his arms with a yawn. “Well, let’s figure out what we need most right now.”

“Training?”

“Aura,” Junhui adds. “Or weapon upgrades? I bet the other teams are doing similar things.”

“Probably.” Soonyoung nods. “Junhui, I have some ideas about your weapon, but it’s up to you in the end. Chan probably needs the most, so we should unlock his aura.”

“And me?” Minghao crosses his arms and tilts his head.

“And you! In all honesty, unlocking your Aura may be the most important thing for you, as well. Since depending on that, we can decide more for your strategy when it comes to hunting.”

“So, my stuff will have to wait.” Minghao sighs. “Okay. I’ll help these two for now.”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t unlock Minghao’s Aura first, if that’s the case?” Chan frowns, worried.

“Chan… you’re currently the weakest here, anything we can do to keep you safe until you’ve had more training should be done first.” Soonyoung doesn’t want to sound harsh, but neither of them can ignore the facts. Chan has the potential to become stronger, but he can’t do that if he dies before then.

“Oh… right. You’re right.”

“Don’t look so upset,” Junhui says, patting Chan on the shoulder. “We all need a lot of work, but we’ll get there and so will you.”

Soonyoung smiles, thankful for Junhui putting it into words. It probably means more, too, from someone who’s also got a lot of work to do. From someone like Soonyoung, who’s already where he should be and even excels, it might not have the same effect.

“We should also,” Soonyoung starts, drawing their attention, “talk to the other teams about buying an aura tester.”

“Hey, I just thought of something,” Minghao says, face turning to realization.

“What is it?”

“You- and the other leaders- should know what kind of Aura you have by now, right?”

“We do. Well, I know I do, so I figure they do too.” Soonyoung nods. “Projecting.”

“That was…” Chan pauses, frowning. “The one that means you can extend your Aura onto other things?”

“Yes!” Soonyoung gives a thumbs up, ecstatic that Chan remembers. “Correct.”

“At least I know I got that one right on the test then.”

“You’re worried about that?”

“Of course.” Chan sighs.

“Don’t be.” Soonyoung sits down, on the bed across the room from him. “Have a little faith in yourself. I’m sure you did fine.”

“I have a question,” Junhui raises his hand, “how does unlocking Aura even work?”

“Oh.” Soonyoung laughs, realizing he’d failed to explain that part. “It’s not that hard, in fact I could do it now. Then I’d be out of commission though… It’s especially easy for me because of my aura’s type.”

“That’s… not really an explanation.”

“Basically.” Soonyoung stands again, feeling like sitting down was a waste, and walks over to Minghao, who’s closest to him. Minghao, in turn, raises an eyebrow. Soonyoung’s hands move up, one to Minghao’s shoulder, the other to the top of his head. “I do this, then push my aura… at him? It’s hard to explain, but basically the presence of an aura, being pushed at you, will force yours to activate, trying to protect you.”

“So how does that… affect you? You said you’d be out of commission.” Minghao pushes Soonyoung’s hands away from him as he speaks.

“It-” Soonyoung laughs, dropping his hands to his side- “it’s more because of your aura than anything to do with me. The way it activates, causes energy to bounce back at me. It’s not going to hurt me, but it’ll be exhausting.”

“So…” Junhui draws out the word, leaning back on his hands from where he now sits on his bed. Soonyoung blinks, having not realized when Junhui moved. “You said you had ideas for upgrades?”

“Yes!” Soonyoung plops down next to him. “I thought about it during our first hunt. We kept having Chan retrieve your knives and I was thinking, what if it was easier so you could do that yourself? Admittedly, I also got some of these ideas from the other teams’ weapons, but, picture this: wires.”

“Wires?” Junhui asks, his words echoed by Chan, who himself seems to be listening. Soonyoung nods, to both of them.

“To the ends of your knives, and attached to their holder. Then when you throw them, you can pull them back to yourself, among other things.”

“It’s… not a half bad idea.” Junhui nods, sitting forward. He looks around, trying to find paper. After a pause, he realizes there’s still paper taped to their walls from Jihoon’s visit for teaching, and stands to pull one of them down.

“And you,” Soonyoung turns to Chan, who looks startled for a second that he’s being addressed, “how do you feel about Crystals?”

“What… kind?”

“I think that’s up to you. However, I was thinking that your weapon would be significantly more effective if we gave it some sort of actual… affect on monsters.”

“Right…” Chan frowns. “So, some element?”

“If that’s what you want. It would probably be the easiest and most direct way.”

“We’re making a lot of changes for just the first week,” Minghao mutters, sitting next to Junhui, who has taken to drawing rough sketches of what he wants his upgraded weapons to look and function like.

Soonyoung nods, though Minghao isn’t facing him. It’s true, a lot is changing. Has already changed, even. More will, too, and Soonyoung is excited to find out how much.

“After we talk to the other teams, I’ll unlock Chan’s aura.”

Agreement echos back at him, and Soonyoung smile. So far, he’s glad about the changes, and he hopes he’ll continue to be.


	23. Unlock, Step One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumlbr version: iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/154372890405/
> 
> Beta read by the lovely jeonkwan (on ao3) yet again!

When a reasonable hour of the morning- eight- comes, Soonyoung visits each of the other teams’ dorms to discuss the purchase of an aura tester. The realization sets in that they all were having the same thoughts- the leaders unlocking at least one of their teammates aura’s- for the day.

“We should send someone with the money to buy one.” Seungcheol hums, looking over the gathered money. When asked, no one had any arguments, giving what they could, and with the split of almost thirteen people, gathering the amount needed was hardly a problem.

“I’ll go.” Wonwoo holds up his hand, offering with no hesitance. “Since I had nothing to offer, it’s the least I could do.”

“Then should I also-” Seungkwan is cut of by Jihoon putting a hand up, in Seungkwan’s face.

“No.”

“Besides, if another person needs to go,” Soonyoung motions to Junhui. “It should be someone who knows what one looks like, to make it easier.”

“It’s still a bit of a trip, so you don’t need to go right away,” Seungcheol says.

“Right, if you two want to do something before heading out, you should.”

Hunters academies are usually a mile from any city. It’s hardly something to worry about- since they’re stocked with most anything a hunter would need- but it wasn’t like they could go to a store on school grounds to ask for something they shouldn’t need. Though the leaders all have doubts about the professors not knowing, it wouldn’t do to be so obvious, just in case.

“Do we all know who’s first from our own teams?” Jihoon asks, looking to the other leaders while Jeonghan finds a map for Wonwoo and Junhui.

“Chan.” Soonyoung nods in said boy’s general direction.

“Uh…” Seungcheol averting his gaze is answer enough. “They all have the same need, except Wonwoo since he’s usually at a greater distance, so…”

“You should talk to your team, then.” Jihoon turns to face Soonyoung, “I’m sending the rest of my team to some on-campus shop for materials. You?”

“I was thinking the same thing!”

“So was I…” Seungcheol mutters under his breath, before calling out to his team. “Though that’ll be just one now.”

“What’s just one?” Mingyu raises an eyebrow for emphasis to his question.

“Oh, one of you will be able to do something else today.” Seungcheol shakes his head. “Anyway, you two- Hansol, Mingyu- should decide whose aura we’re unlocking today.”

“Hansol’s.” Mingyu sounds hesitant, despite speaking first. “He’s… closer to danger than I am.”

“You sure?” Hansol asks, growing quiet when Mingyu doesn’t immediately respond.

“Yeah.” Mingyu finally speaks, giving a nod. “I’m sure. It makes the most sense.”

“Okay.” Seungcheol nods, with a quick- worried- glance at Mingyu, he turns his attention to Hansol. “You, it is.”

Mingyu raises his hand in a wave as he starts his way to the dorms, voice quiet, “I’m going to talk to Seungkwan since he also uses a bow.”

“Good idea.” Seungcheol’s worry doesn’t leave his face, even when Mingyu is out of sight.

“What’s wrong?” Hansol asks, despite himself looking concerned.

“I just hope he’s not… no, it’s nothing.” Seungcheol isn’t arguing with Mingyu’s logic, because he was right. Yet, he’s worried about Mingyu’s hesitation. Not being the first to have is aura unlocked won’t cause Mingyu to fall behind, not in this situation at least, but that doubt has to be there. “I’ll talk to him later.”

 

“We’re setting out!” Junhui calls down the hall as he and Wonwoo reach the end of it. Halfway down, where all three dorms sit, they receive calls back.

“You make it sound like we’re going on a grand adventure.”

“Next best thing.”

“Because shopping is dangerous?”

“It could be.”

“Sure,” Wonwoo says, rolling his eyes. Said eyes look down at the bag filled with coins and paper money. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much in one place.”

As they reach the stairs, Wonwoo’s gaze shifts to the ground, and Junhui hold back his own comment. It’s a lot, sure, but Junhui has seen that much change hands before. The government pays hunters rather well, after all, and both his parents were hunters. “You’ll probably see it a lot once you’re a hunter.”

“That’s the goal.” They reach the last step.

“I see.”

 

Everyone gathers in the largest team’s dorm. “Once this is done, those of you left can go to the other building, but just in case someone passes out, we need you here.” Jihoon sighs, stretching his arms out.

“Worried?” Seungcheol asks, shifting his weight.

“No, it’s just going to take a lot. I’m not a projector.”

“Oh!” Soonyoung gasps. “That’s right I never asked about you two.”

Murmurs come from the rest of the group, interests piqued apparently.

“Strengthening.” Seungcheol grins. “You?”

“Projecting!” Soonyoung laughs. “So it will be easy for me.”

“Amazing,” Jihoon mutters, “we’ve got one of each between us. Harming.”

“You hear that Jeonghan?” Jisoo laughs from his place to the side when Jeonghan reaches out to smack him for the comment.

“What is that supposed to mean? I asked about harming- like- once!”

“Four times, more like.”

“Children, children.” Seungkwan sighs, shaking his head in mock-exasperation.

“You’re the youngest on our team.” Jeonghan glares.

“You don’t know that!”

“You said that yesterday.” Seokmin starts, laughing, “Also, I think we’ve gone off topic.”

“No, no, please continue. Watching your team argue makes ours look better.” Minghao says, smiling.

“You say that like ours looked bad,” Chan mutters.

“Guys!” Jihoon heaves a sigh. “Could you shut up? I need to concentrate. Also, Seokmin come here.”

“Oh, right.” Seokmin nods, stepping forward.

“Did you forget it was you?”

“Maybe.” Seokmin cheekily grins, shoulders shrugging in apology as he attempts to alleviate the nervousness.

“Okay, stand still.” Jihoon waits, while Seokmin takes a deep breath. Then, his right hand comes to rest on Seokmin’s tense shoulder, and the other to the top of his head. Jihoon ignores the snickering noise that comes from his left, focusing on his own aura.

It’s cold, a feeling like snow-filled wind against his skin that he can almost picture. He closes his eyes, focusing on that feeling, on the blue that represents it in his mind, and on forcing that towards something. Usually, when he does that, it’s to hurt something, but not this time. No, rather than give it form, he tries to picture that blue covering Seokmin.

Seokmin is still tense, but he stays still until cold air reaches him, burning in his lungs. Then, he’s coughing, clutching at his chest, and Jihoon finds himself on the ground, staring at the ceiling.

“Are you two okay?!” Hansol is the first the recover from the shock of their sudden separation to ask.

“Yeah.” Jihoon clears his throat and sits up. After a moment, in which he tries to regain his bearings, head spinning as it tries to catch up with his sudden position on the ground, he speaks again. “Seokmin’s aura activated.”

“Is that why I’m freezing?” Seokmin coughs and presses his hands to his chest as if to hold in what warmth he has left.

“No, that’s because of my aura.”

“Cold?” Soonyoung tilts his head with the word.

“It’s ice, usually.”

“Ah.” Soonyoung nods.

“Can you stand?” Seungcheol asks, offering a hand to Jihoon.

“No, not yet, my head’s… spinning.” Jihoon breaths out, closing his eyes but regrets it when that only makes him feel worse. “Seokmin should sit down before he hurts himself.”

In response, Seungkwan makes his way over to steady Seokmin and help him sit on his bed. Seokmin takes another minute to stop shivering, and then a clear wave of exhaustion settles over him.

“You okay?” Jisoo asks.

“Yeah?” Seokmin nods, but it doesn’t sound very reassuring.  He then pauses before shaking his head. “I need to lie down.”

Jihoon, on the other hand, calls out to his team from his spot on the floor. “Come help me up, then you can leave.”

Jeonghan and Jisoo help Jihoon get to his feet, and walk over to his own bed. “Will you two be okay?”

“Yeah.” Jihoon nods at Jeonghan. “You’re free to go.”

 

The next is Soonyoung and Chan, so the remaining first years gather in their dorm. Though Soonyoung tells Seungkwan, Jeonghan, and Jisoo it’s fine if they want to go onto their own tasks, they’re all set on making sure things go at least as well for his team.

“Besides, if each team stayed to themselves you’d only have one other person here.” Jeonghan says, as explanation.

“He’s not wrong.” Minghao shrugs.

Everyone- sans Soonyoung and Chan- stand to the side, by the dorm’s door, watching. Soonyoung waits for Chan to nod, to be sure the other is ready, before placing his hands on Chan’s shoulder and head.

Soonyoung is used to the feeling, to pushing the warm, tingling energy out from himself. Even without closing his eyes, he can clearly picture the energy sitting in his chest, and imagines it being pushed out at Chan. While he usually pictures the energy covering his target, he instead pictures it moving inward, angling it at Chan’s torso.

Then, he feels it bounce back. Soonyoung stumbles, hitting the wall but staying on his feet. Chan, for his part, presses a hand to his mouth and curls into himself, looking like he’s going to be sick.

“Chan?” Minghao rubs the other’s back, his other hand holding Chan’s arm in case he needs to be steadied.

“Okay. I’m okay.”

“You don’t look it.” Minghao leads Chan to sit down. “Don’t get sick on me.”

“No promises.”

“Soonyoung?” Minghao turns his attention to Soonyoung, who shakes his head.

“I’m good. If… a bit scared to move away from the wall.”

“Then you should sit down, too.” Minghao glances to the bystanders, silently asking them to help Soonyoung. Mingyu and Seungcheol are the first to move, helping Soonyoung with the few steps towards the other bottom bunk in the room.

“We switched beds.” Soonyoung’s mumbling is followed by him laying down and closing his eyes. “I hope you don’t mind because I’m not moving.”

“Switching implies that I took yours,” Minghao mutters, shaking his head. “You just took mine.”

“Sorry.”

“I’m not complaining, better that than you trying to climb up to your own. Either of you.”

“This isn’t even my side of the room,” Chan mutters. He chances a glance to the bed across and above from him and shakes his head. “Close enough.”

“Not up for moving either?” Minghao laughs. “Rest. I doubt Junhui will complain.”

“Okay.”

 

Yet again the remaining of the group move onto another dorm once assured that Soonyoung and Chan were alright. Seungcheol has Hansol stand next to him, beside one set of bunk-beds, with the idea that they can at least try to fall in that general direction if need be.

Left hand on Hansol’s shoulder, right hand on his head, Seungcheol breathes out and closes his eyes. He is- arguably- the most disadvantaged when it come to attempting this. His aura isn’t made to leave him nor to take its place around someone or something else. The closest he gets is to push all of his aura to one place. His aura is only supposed to deal with himself, so trying to push it at someone else is hard to even begin to picture.

Nonetheless, he’s got to try. He tries to clear his thoughts of anything but the smoke-like feeling of his aura covering him, and tries to focus on moving that, while taking a deep breath in. He pushes his aura to his hands, tries to force it further. Somehow, it stings, like his skin is being pulled at. Breathing out again, Seungcheol attempts to ignore the feeling, knowing it’ll come back to him.

His arms burn, and Hansol is taking steps away from him. Seungcheol opens his eyes, blinks, and focuses his fuzzy vision on Hansol. He seems alright, at the very least. He’s dropping down onto the bed next to them with a shaky breath, but alright.

“Okay?” Seungcheol’s voice come out quieter than he intends it, throat burning too. Everything feels off, but he expected that.

“Yeah.” It’s hardly convincing, but Hansol seems to steadying his breathing. “I’m just going to… lie here.”

And Hansol does just that, burying his face in the mattress under him.

“And how are you?” Seungcheol nearly jumps, almost forgetting that an entire group of people was there to be sure they are both okay.

“I’m okay. A little… off, but I’ll be fine.” Seungcheol takes shaky steps towards his own bed, across the room. Though the distance isn’t actually much, he finds Mingyu and Seungkwan at his sides, making sure he doesn’t fall over. “I’m going to rest, all of you are free to go.”

“You sure?” Mingyu glances between his two present teammates. Hansol make a vague noise that could mean anything, and Seungcheol nods.

“Yeah. Don’t worry.”

 

While the six students with unlocked auras rest, and while Wonwoo and Junhui are out on their shopping trip, the rest go off to one of the school’s other buildings. The same building where they are provided food is also where students can go to buy materials, Crystals, and anything else they may need. Different levels have shops for different things, so they separate based on what they need.

Jeonghan and Jisoo set off for metal. If they’re going to reinforce their swords with crystals, they decide they may as well make the base a stronger metal as well. Minghao joins them, in search of metal wires. Being that he doesn’t have a plan for upgrades of his own yet, he might as well help out one of their missing members, so he promised Junhui to do just that.

“So, you two actually know what you’re looking for?”

“Something… stronger than iron?” Jisoo’s answer is more of a question in tone, and Minghao shakes his head in response.

“Steel, in theory, since it’s easy to combine with Crystals.” Jeonghan shrugs. “I’ll also need to see about oxides…”

“Oxides?” Jisoo tilts his head and turns slightly to his left to face Jeonghan more.

“Hey, if we’ve got to forge weapons, might as well make them look cool. I’m going to see if I can get ahold of the stuff to make my sword black.”

“Oh, really?”

“You know how to do that? Or are you just really determined for aesthetics?” Minghao leans forwards so he can see past Jisoo where Jeonghan is.

“Of course I know how. Forging weapons is like, the one thing I don- didn’t need combat school for.” Jeonghan clears his throat, having barely caught the word ‘don’t’ before it was out.

“Since when?”

“Since always? Most of the time I spent with my parents was around weapons. I picked up on some stuff.”

“You want to explain that further?” Jisoo frowns. “Out of context that doesn’t sound like a good thing.”

“They sell and make weapons!” Jeonghan huffs. “They were busy so I ended up at their workplace fairly often.”

“Ah,” Jisoo nods, “whenever I saw weapons they were already made and locked away. Well, outside of my own training.”

“That’s more than I can say,” Minghao says, frowning. “I never saw weapons until combat school.”

“You didn’t?”

“Not everyone’s parents deal with weapons all the time.” Minghao shrugs, turning his attention away from them and to the right, at a store. “Metal.”

“Huh?” Jeonghan leans forward, around both of them, to glance in that direction. “Oh, metal shop.”

 

The remaining two, Seungkwan and Mingyu, head off in search of Crystals. They have the same weapon- in general terms- so it’s no surprise to Seungkwan that Mingyu seems to be thinking the same as him, if with different elements.

“So, I know what I’m here for.” Seungkwan picks up and examines a white wind Crystal as if he actually knows how to tell their quality. A shop attendant hides her face- clearly amused- and doesn’t meet either of their eyes. “Do you?”

“Not sure,” Mingyu admits, shrugging. “I wanted to take a look to be sure I know my options first. What are you going to do then?”

“Wind and electricity!” Mingyu freezes at Seungkwans words. “Something wrong?”

“Electricity- lightning- Crystals are…” He sighs. “I’m allergic to them.”

“Oh. Well, I guess I’ll stick to wind this trip.”

“Also, they’re all good Crystals.” Mingyu points to the Crystal in Seungkwan’s hand. “But it might be safer to buy ones already in the size and shape you need, so you don’t accidentally set them off on yourself.”

“I know that!” The shop attendant snorts but Seungkwan pretends not to notice. He sets the Crystal in his hand down, takes a step to his right and reaching into a pile of small, white crystals. They glimmer, and he’s careful with their sharp edges when the shop attendant warns him to be. “These are probably about right.”

“Seems like it.”

“But the question is, how many will I need?”

“How many can you afford?” At that, it’s Seungkwan’s turn to freeze.

“I uh… don’t know?” Seungkwan glances down at the price- 200 shin, the Eastern Kingdom’s currency- a fairly small amount. “A dozen?”

“Then maybe less than that? You need to buy two types of crystals, after all.” Mingyu glances further right, where the green crystals sit, and steps slightly to the left. “Which you can get now, if you want, I’ll be okay with a little exposure.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yeah.” Mingyu nods. It’s true, too, small amounts of contact aren’t going to ruin him, but he’s used to avoiding them altogether.

“If you say so.” Seungkwan still sound worried, but draws the shop attendant’s attention- as if she wasn’t listening in the first place- and asks for as many crystals as he can; half of each kind. “Made any progress deciding on your own?”

“No. I mean…” Mingyu pauses, Seungkwan breaks eye contact just long enough to grab the bag of crystals. “Is fire too obvious?”

“Of course not!” Seungkwan laughs. “Besides, it doesn’t matter to monsters, anyway.”

“Good point.” Mingyu nods. “I think I’m going to take a note from you, too.”

“Wind?”

“Yep.”

 

Aura testers are bracelet-like machines with a paneled inside, like a vent but much smaller, and a small screen meant to give one their results. Junhui points it out almost as soon as he and Wonwoo enter the store, rushing over to it. Wonwoo, on the other hand, stares at the price- 30,000 shin- in horror, despite having that same amount in his hands.

“It feels like a waste, even though I know it’s not.” Wonwoo watches Junhui grab a box holding one with a frown.

“Spending any large amount tends to feel like that. I’d assume even more so when you don’t usually have so much.” Junhui shrugs, holding up the box which is only a little bigger than his hand. “We need it, though.”

“Right.” Wonwoo nods, shifting on his feet. “Well, let’s buy it so we can get back.”

They have an hour long journey back, so Junhui doesn’t at all hesitate to make his way to the front of the shop. The owner raises an eyebrow at them, and their pouch of money, but takes it without questioning them and gives them the tester.

“Can I ask you something?” Wonwoo asks after they’re no more than a block away.

“Sure.”

“Is that amount something you’re used to seeing?”

Junhui pauses, looking confused for a second before he realizes Wonwoo means money. “Well, yeah. My parent’s are both hunters, so it wasn’t a big amount in my eyes when I was younger. I mean, now I realize it’s more than some people ever see, but…”

“Okay.”

“Why?”

“Just wondering, I guess. Even though it’s why I’m here, it’s still weird to think one day I could make that much.”

“Will make that much.”

“Huh?”

“You said ‘could’ so…”

“Oh.” Wonwoo laugh, nods. “Yeah, one day I will make that much.”

“Anyway! We should hurry, I want to see this thing put to use as soon as possible.”

“Okay.” Wonwoo nods, and they both pick up their pace, if only slightly.


	24. One Fourth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumlbr version: http://iamashamedofmyfanfics.tumblr.com/post/157453826890/
> 
> Beta read by the lovely jeonkwan (on ao3) yet again!

Since they’re in the building anyway, everyone there gathers to get food and take it back to their sleeping teammates. So, when Junhui and Wonwoo return, it’s to everyone gathered in the largest dorm, squashed together on the floor or beds, passing food around. Even the ones who had previously been resting.

Soonyoung, Chan, and Seokmin sit on the right side’s bottom bunk, Soonyoung with his legs crossed, Chan against the wall, legs stretched out, and Seokmin with his legs dangling over the side as he reaches for food from Seungkwan. Seungkwan himself sits on the floor, in front of said bed, taking a container of rice from Hansol, who’s across from him, in order to pass it to Seokmin. Next to Seungkwan, Jeonghan leans against the bed frame behind them, motioning vaguely with his hand as he talks to Mingyu, who sits against the bed frame on the opposite side.

Above Mingyu, on the other bed, Seungcheol sits cross-legged, arms on his knees as he leans over to talk to Jisoo. Next to Seungcheol, Jihoon has taken to ignoring any of the conversations going on in favor of stuffing his face with food. An action which Minghao, who sits on the ground next to the bed and beside Hansol, seems to take to as well.

Junhui and Wonwoo look around the group, then too each other, both unsure where they should try to fit themselves. They don’t need to answer the silent question themselves. Minghao and Jihoon point to the empty spot next to Jihoon on the bed, which Junhui carefully makes his way to, stepping around food and other people.

“Welcome back,” Minghao greets, shoving a set of packaged plastic utensil at him.

“Thanks.”

Wonwoo is beckoned by Mingyu and Jeonghan to the open space at the edge of the group between them. A spot which he happily plops down into, glad he doesn’t have to chance walking over anyone or thing.

“How’d your trip go?” Jeonghan asks, without facing Wonwoo. Instead, he makes motions towards another set of plastic utensils across the room, getting Soonyoung’s attention.

“It went well. e got what we went for.” Wonwoo holds up the box containing the aura tester, while Soonyoung tosses the utensil package in his general direction, nearly hitting him in the face.

“Sorry!” He snickers.

“How’d this go?” Junhui asks, referring to the unlocking of their teammates auras.

“As well as it could have,” Hansol is the one to answer, tilting his head back to his left in an attempt to look in Junhui’s general direction.

“As well as it could have?”

“They were out of commission,” Seungkwan answers, “but they’re alive and well now, so it went well.”

“Two-fourths of the way to fully aura-using teams!” Soonyoung grins.

“Two-fifths in our case, actually,” Seokmin adds, pointing at himself since his team isn’t in any one area of the room.

“Oh, right, your team has more people.”

“Oh, right… we have more people.” Jihoon sighs, leaning back against the wall behind him.

“Hey, hey, don’t worry about it so much, when it’s down to only your team with one person who needs it, I could do that for you.” Soonyoung gives a thumbs up, as if that somehow assures his words.

“Why?”

“It’s easier for me?” Soonyoung tilts his head. “We’re all in this together now, why wouldn’t I?”

“Huh,” Jihoon leans forward again. “I’ll consider it.”

“Speaking of,” Seungcheol speaks, just loud enough to gain their attention, “do we want to go ahead and figure out their aura types?”

“Oh, right,” Chan is the one to speak, pointing at the box in Wonwoo’s hands, “they went through all the trouble to get it.”

“It wasn’t a lot of trouble.” Wonwoo smiles, handing the box to Jeonghan next to him. Who, in turn, hands it to Seokmin, who gives it to Chan.

“Okay- well- I didn’t mean we give it to me first.”

“Then pass it back to Seokmin?” Soonyoung offers, patting Chan on the back. After a pause, Chan shakes his head and opens the box himself.

“Might as well.”

Soonyoung helps Chan get the aura tester out of its packaging and strap it to his wrist. “Now, you know how it felt when your Aura activated? Think about that.”

“Easier said than done,” Chan mutters. Still, he closes his eyes and tries to think about it how he felt beyond just feeling sick when his Aura activated. Then, there’s a beeping sound and he nearly jumps out of his skin. “You didn’t warn me it would beep!”

“Hey, I didn’t know!” Soonyoung holds up his hands in defense, laughing.

“So?” Minghao asks, bringing attention to the fact that everyone is waiting.

“It is- drum roll please-” Soonyoung grins, looking at the tester’s screen and then turning Chan’s arm so the others can’t see.

“No.”

“Aw, Minghao, come on.”

“No.”

“Fine, you’re no fun.” Soonyoung holds up Chan’s arm, showing the screen with a red line displayed on it.

“Okay that tells us a lot.” Sarcasm drips from Jeonghan’s voice.

“I’m getting there! Harming!”

“Wait, really?” Chan pulls his arm away to look at it himself. The red line doesn’t answer his question, nor his shock, but he stares at it as if it will. “Me? Harming?”

“The real question will be what form it takes,” Jihoon says, drawing Chan’s attention away from the tester. “Which you’ll figure out with time. Its name is misleading, because you don’t actually have to use it to harm anything.”

“But isn’t it defined-”

“Anything related to Aura is loosely defined, it’s still a new thing in the world of science.”

“Oh… okay! I wonder what form it’ll take.” Chan ponders, glancing down at his wrist again, then makes to remove the tester. Soonyoung sends a grateful glance at Jihoon, who shrugs it off. Soonyoung wouldn’t have had the words to explain why harming Aura’s don’t mean something negative, being that he doesn’t have one, so he thinks it’s good to have someone who is experienced with it to tell Chan as much.

“Seokmin next, then?” Seungkwan asks.

“Seokmin next.” Chan passes the Aura tester to Seokmin, then helps the other to put it on his wrist.

“Thanks,” Seokmin offers along with a smile in return.

“I’d bet actual money it’s Strengthening.”

“You don’t have money, Seungkwan.” Hansol rolls his eyes.

“You don’t know that!”

“You said that when we were gathering money earlier!”

“You’ve got me there.” Seungkwan frowns, unhappy to have his statement so easily proven wrong.

“Besides,” Hansol adds, “I’d bet projecting.”

“Nah, I don’t see it.”

“Guys,” Jisoo interrupts, pointing at Seokmin. “You’re distracting him.”

“Oh, sorry.” Seungkwan turns his attention back to Seokmin, who shakes his head.

“It’s okay.” Seokmin breaths out, closes his eyes, and thinks of the moment when his aura unlocked. Though most of what he remembers is just being cold, there’s another vague feeling he remembers, like an internal warmth trying to make up for the cold.

Then, there’s beeping and, despite knowing it was going to happen, Seokmin screeches in surprise.

“Don’t have a heart attack.” Jeonghan doesn’t sound at all concerned, despite his words.

“Trying not to.” Seokmin breaths out, calming himself from the shock. When Soonyoung reaches for his arm, he easily lets him see it.

“Drum roll for the bet result?” Soonyoung seems to be expecting another rejection of the idea, but Seungkwan offers a half-hearted attempt at drum sounds with his voice. “Thanks.”

“Wouldn’t it have been easier to just tap something?” Jihoon mutters. His question goes ignored in favor of more mock-drum sounds, this time from Hansol.

“Strengthening!” Soonyoung turns Seokmin’s arm around, showing off a blue line.

“Yes!” Seungkwan cheers.

“Aw, man.” Hansol frowns.

“How do you know which colour is which?” Jisoo asks, as if the question has only just occurred to him.

“It’s on the box.” Wonwoo is the one to answer, shrugging.

“So you and Junhui also know.”

“Yep.” Junhui grins and points at Hansol. “Which mean I can announce this one.”

“Oh, joy.” Sarcasm drips from Seungcheol’s voice, yet he smiles.

“Catch, then!” Soonyoung shouts, throwing the aura tester at Junhui, whose eyes widen in panic for a moment before he catches it.

“Don’t break it!” Jisoo calls out. Junhui, in response, waves it around to show it’s fine. With a sigh, Jisoo shakes his head.

“Give me your arm, Hansol.”

“But you’re all the way over there.” Hansol leans back against the bed and stretches his left arm out.

“A whole foot.” Jihoon scoots back, before leaning forward to pull at the back of Hansol’s shirt. “Just come up here.”

“You have enough space there?”

“Don’t make me answer that.”

“He’s small enough.” Seungcheol slides forward, off the bed, to avoid being hit. In his place, Hansol moves up to sit on it. There’s a smacking sound when Junhui grab’s Hansol’s arm, which elicits an ‘ow’ of response before Hansol realizes it didn’t hurt.

Once the aura tester is strapped to his wrist, Hansol frowns in concentration and closes his eyes. If Hansol thought back to it, when his Aura was unlocked, he could remember a feeling like prickling over his skin, pulling away from him. While he’s focusing on that feeling, a beeping draws him from his thoughts.

A green line. Before Junhui can even try to ask for a drum roll, Minghao smacks his leg, so instead he just turns Hansol’s arm for the room to see. “Projecting!”

“Whoo,” Soonyoung cheers, “projecting club!”

“Yay?” Hansol offers in return to Soonyoung’s excitement. Deflating, Soonyoung pouts.

“You’re no fun.”

“Guys,” Mingyu says, “now that this is done, is anyone else really tired?”

“We have been awake since really early this morning,” Seungcheol offers with a shrug.

“No, I feel well rested.” Hansol gives his own shrug, only to get kicked in the legs by Seungkwan.

“You’ve been asleep until now!” Seungkwan points at Hansol, for emphasis, presumably.

“Hey, I’ve been up a whole half hour!”

“Well, I am tired.” Wonwoo seems to ignore the “argument” in favor of leaning back on his hands. “I think I’m going to head back to our dorm.”

“Me too.” Mingyu gets to his feet, hands resting on his knees for leverage, before offering a hand to Wonwoo, who takes his help up. Mingyu looks to Hansol and Seungcheol, a silent question, and receives a nod from Seungcheol. While Mingyu pulls Seungcheol to his feet as well, Hansol stuffs a few more bites of food into his mouth before jumping to his own feet.

“Off we are then.” Seungcheol motions to Hansol- or, to his wrist- while facing the others. “Where should the aura tester be kept?”

“I’d say in here somewhere, give the biggest team the responsibility,” Minghao answers.

“Gee, thanks.” Jihoon stands, hand held out, waiting to be handed it. Once Hansol does hand it over, he and his team leave for their own dorm.

“What about you guys?” Seokmin turns to his side, where Chan and Soonyoung sit.

“Not that we want you to leave, but…” Jisoo shrugs noncommittally.

“Gee, thanks.” Soonyoung grins at glare he receives for the copying statement. “I get it, we’re all tired.”

“Some more than others.” Jeonghan glances, knowingly, at Seungkwan who, as far as he knows, has been up the longest. He was awake already when Jeonghan had woken up, at an odd hour of the morning, and he was certain that, unlike him, Seungkwan hadn’t slept since.

“Just a bit.” Seungkwan laughs, half-heartedly.

“Back to our dorm we go, then.” Junhui jumps to his feet, sudden enough to startle Minghao.

“Yeah, sure.” Minghao clears his throat, glaring. His glare stops with a roll of his eyes when Junhui offers him a hand up from the floor.

“Goodnight.” Chan scoots forward, feet touching the ground. With a yawn and a wave, he makes his way out the door. Junhui and Minghao aren’t far behind, with their own farewells. Soonyoung, too, isn’t far behind them with his own ‘goodnight’ and wave.

Their dorm cleared out of anyone that isn’t part of their team, the remaining group takes to clearing the floor of food and packaging before getting ready for rest themselves.

“Well, this has been an eventful week.” Jeonghan yawns, stretching.

“Oh man, it’s only been a week.” Jihoon sighs, dropping down onto his bed. “We’ve only been here a week.”

“It wasn’t even really that long. It’s like day five- six? Oh.” Jisoo shakes his head. “You think every week here will be so… much?”

“Much,” Jeonghan repeats, shaking his head. “Probably?”

“Worry about it later.” Jihoon says, pointing across the room from himself at Seokmin and Seungkwan. “They’ve already fallen asleep, you should too.”

“You just want us to shut up.”

“Yes.”

Once silence settles over the dorm, exhaustion sets in, reminding Jihoon of how tired he still is. Three more weeks, he thinks. There’s at least three more weeks until he can start properly catching his team up with their missed education. The thought only adds to his exhaustion, and it’s not long before sleep takes over.


	25. Adjustment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided not to link to the tumblr version every chapter anymore, since there isn't much point.
> 
> Beta read by the lovely jeonkwon (on ao3)

Logically, everyone should spend the second day of their weekend sleeping. Still, Jihoon finds himself woken up again by the sounds from one of his teammates. This time it’s Seokmin, who’s halfway to stuffing bread into his mouth when Jihoon sits up and raises an eyebrow at him. Plastic crinkles as he lowers the food and only then, does Jihoon realize what the sound was.

“You’re up already?” Jihoon yawns, glances at the clock and notes the time. A little past six in the morning.

“I already slept a lot yesterday. Not tired.”

“Ah,” Jihoon hums in acknowledgment, nodding. After a moment, he stands and motions Seokmin to follow him. “Come on.”

Seokmin follows silently, all the way out of the dorms and to the other building. Once there, Jihoon speaks again. “We’ll eat, then we should make use of being awake.”

Seated at a table to one side of the room, they eat without a word. Seokmin seems to have some sort of realization of how hungry he actually is, and Jihoon isn’t surprised. It takes a lot out of someone to have their aura unlocked. Just like it took a lot to unlock one.

Once they’re done- denoted by Seokmin sitting back with a hand on his full stomach, and a content sigh- they stand and Seokmin is back to following Jihoon quietly. If he’s being honest, Jihoon is surprised Seokmin is so quiet.

“Okay.” Jihoon turns around to face Seokmin once they’re a good distance from the school buildings, just on the edge of the treeline that surrounds the school grounds. “We’re going to see about getting you used to having and using an aura.”

“How are we going to-” Jihoon interrupts him by throwing a punch at Seokmin. Stumbling, Seokmin clutches his face, shock stretching over his face. “Ow?” He says incredulously.

“Ow?” When Jihoon questions it, almost mockingly, Seokmin realizes it didn’t hurt. He continues to hold his face and frown, however.

“No. I felt it, but it didn’t hurt.”

“Because your Aura protected you automatically.”

“Or you’re really weak-”

“Don’t test me.”

“Right!” Seokmin drops his hand from his face, and stands up straight. “So what now?”

“I’m going to hit you again. Focus on what you feel in place of pain. Since your Aura is a Strengthening type, you need to figure out how it feels so you can purposefully move it. Alright, so, ready?”

“Yeah.” Seokmin nods, bracing himself for the punch, and tries to focus on what he’s feeling rather than the fact he’s being hit. At most, he notes a slight tingling, like the feeling he gets when his limbs fall asleep. “Why- um- why does it feel different than the feeling I had when it was unlocked?”

“Stress. Your body was stressed to the point of unlocking your Aura, so it pushed everything out at once. What it’s doing now is only equal to how much damage you would have taken, so it’s going to feel different.”

“That make sense.” Seokmin nods. After a pause, in which he stares at Jihoon, he frowns. “Aren’t you going to hit me again?”

“Do you need me to?”

“I think so.”

“Okay.” Jihoon shrugs, taking stance with a smirk. “Get ready.”

 

When Seungcheol wakes, a little past seven in the morning, he’s starving. So he seeks out food, then decides to bring some back to the dorm because he’s sure when his team wakes up they’ll also be hungry. When he returns, Hansol is already awake, sitting on his bed and staring at his hands. Upon getting closer, Seungcheol realizes he’s also holding a pen, for some reason.

“You’re up?”

“Yeah,” Hansol responds without looking up, “welcome back.”

“Thanks.” Seungcheol sits next to him, instead of going to his own side of the room. “I brought food.”

“Cool.” Hansol finally looks up, taking a box when Seungcheol hands it over. “I’m starving… is this fried rice?”

“Don’t judge my breakfast choices.”

“I’m not.” Hansol holds up his hands defensively before turning his attention back to the food.

“What were you doing?”

“Trying to figure my aura out.”

“Yeah?”

“I can sort of feel it? If I focus enough-” Hansol pauses to take a plastic spoon from Seungcheol- “it’s just trying to figure out how to actually do anything with it that’s hard.”

“You _just_ unlocked it. Of course it’s going to be hard to figure out.” Seungcheol pats him on the back. “You’ll figure it out.”

“How long did it take you?”

“Comparison isn’t going to be helpful in this case.” Seungcheol shakes his head with pursed lips. “Different people, different aura types. It’s all very different.”

“I guess.” Hansol frowns and shoves a spoonful of rice into his mouth. Seungcheol laughs, standing, and moves to wake up their other teammates.

“Hey, guys, get up long enough to eat!”

“I’m tired,” Wonwoo simply mumbles.

“You can sleep once you’re fed, get up.”

“Hey, Seungcheol?” Hansol draws his leader’s attention to him again.

“Yes?”

“What was the first thing you did when you were learning how to deal with your aura?”

“Punched trees.”

“You’re lying.”

“I wish I was.”

“I’m not punching trees,” Hansol says, frowning.

“How about,” Seungcheol hums, “you focus on that pen still.”

“You think that’s actually going to help?”

“Try focusing on it, then throwing it at the wall. These walls aren’t all that soft, so if you can get the pen to stick into the wall, you’ve managed to attach your aura to it.”

“Okay.” Hansol nods. “I guess that makes sense. Sort of.”

“I smell food.” Mingyu bolts up in his bed.

Seungcheol sighs, reaching for the food. “Took you long enough.”

 

Soonyoung has no idea what he’s doing, nor how he ended up on the ground. What he does know is that Chan is screaming, and that he is no longer in his bed. Which is concerning when one has a top bunk. Blinking up at the ceiling, Soonyoung tries to figure out what happened.

“Are you okay?” Chan halts his yelling to stare down at Soonyoung. From below Chan, Minghao makes an annoyed noise and turns over in his bed.

“What happened?”

“I screamed, you sat up in your bed, turned over, and fell out.”

“Cool.” Soonyoung sits up, sighing. “Why’d you scream?”

“Electricity.”

“That-” Soonyoung stops, confusion covering his face- “that tells me nothing.”

“Electricity,” Chan repeats, holding out his hands and cupping them in front of him. Soonyoung can see a small flash- a line- of light.

“Oh.” Soonyoung mutters, not yet fully processing what he just saw. Then, his eyes widen.“ _Oh_. That happens with harming types. I forgot to tell you.” He laughs sheepishly.

“You didn’t think to warn me?!”

“Sorry, Chan.” Soonyoung yawns, and motions Chan to come down to the ground. “Get dressed, we should go study.”

“Study?”

“Oh, and eat. That’s also important.”

“Sure… right.”

Even while they’re eating, Chan holds his hands away from himself as much as possible. Soonyoung wishes he could easily say that he didn’t need to be so worried about it, but Chan’s hesitance is likely the only thing keeping the little shocks under control.

“Chan.” Soonyoung says over a mouth still full of food.

“Yeah?”

“Your own Aura,” He points at Chan’s hand with his spoon, “isn’t going to hurt you. That’s,  like, the opposite of its job.”

“Right,” Chan takes a deep breath, “I know.”

“And, hey, now you know what form it takes!”

“Now if I could make it… stop taking form.”

“You’ll figure it out. For now, you can get used to the feeling. The more used to it you are, the easier it is to control.” Soonyoung reaches over the pat Chan on the shoulder, who tenses at the contact. “You okay?”

“It can’t hurt me, but I’m still not in control of it.”

“If you’re always scared of it, you might make it worse.” Soonyoung pauses, frowns in thought, then nods to himself. “Want to talk to Jihoon?”

“Huh?”

“He’s probably going to be dealing with Seokmin, but I’m sure we could convince him to spend some time with you. Since he’s the only first year with experience with Harming Auras.”

“Can I be honest?”

“Sure.”

“Yeah, that’d probably be better.”

“Okay,” Soonyoung nods, “let’s talk to Jihoon.”

Though Soonyoung wants to help Chan- and to help his team in general- he knows that going to someone who knows more about a subject than he does is for the best. Though the word ‘better’ stings a little, but he can’t quite admit to himself that it does.

 

Seokmin takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and tries really hard to focus on his hands. After a moment, he releases his breath and frowns.

“You’re doing fine,” Jihoon says, noting Seokmin’s frown. “Here, I want you to hit me.”

“What?!”

“I have an aura too, you know.” Jihoon rolls his eyes. “Hit me, without thinking about your aura.”

Seokmin does. Jihoon stays in place, though he flinches. Even without pain, having someone punch you is startling. “I’m-”

“Don’t start apologizing. I just asked you to.” Jihoon grabs Seokmin’s hand and holds it up between them. “Now, focus on this, and hit me again.”

“Um-”

“And if it doesn’t hurt I’m going to hit _you_ again.” Jihoon lets go of Seokmin’s hand, watches the concentration that forms on Seokmin’s face, and braces himself. Seokmin swings at him again, and this time Jihoon can feel his face sting where Seokmin’s fist collided with his face. Jihoon cups his possibly bruising jaw, and takes a step back.

“Did it… work?”

Jihoon nods.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course.” Jihoon straightens up, lowers his hand, and rolls his shoulders. “There you go: aura punches. You broke through my Aura and everything.”

“Aura punches.” Seokmin grins. ”I did it! Ha, master of Strengthening Auras, Lee Seokmin!”

“Yes, yes, good job.” Jihoon rolls his eyes, but offers a smile anyway. “Now, punch that tree.”

Seokmin falters. “What?” He turns to the tree Jihoon points at, then back to Jihoon.

“Well, I’m not letting you hit me anymore.”

 

Hansol is having no luck, but he has made the wall a mess. Which, in and of itself isn’t helping anyone. Seungcheol offers a reassuring smile when Hansol chucks the pen yet again, only to have it bounce off with nothing more than a scribble.

“Are we going to get in trouble for that?” Mingyu asks, watching Hansol pick the pen up again.

“We’re allowed to staple posters to the wall, this seems like less permanent damage.” Seungcheol shrugs. “I think of all the things we could in trouble for, this is pretty low on the list.”

“Hey Hansol?” Wonwoo calls when Hansol starts glaring at the pen in his hand.

“Yeah?”

“You don’t really need to deal with the whole pen do you?”

“Huh?” Hansol stares down at the pen. After a moment, realization covers his face and Seungcheol tries not laugh at the amazement that his face ends up in. “Oh my god.”

“What is it?” Seungcheol asks, drawing Hansol’s attention.

“I only need to make the tip of it stronger!”

“If that’s how you want to go about it.”

Hansol throws the pen again. It still doesn’t stick into the wall, but he shoots up quickly to grab it then returns to the other side of the room, determined. Seungcheol smiles, and Mingyu raises eyebrows at Seungcheol.

“You didn’t think to give him that idea?”

“I wanted him to get used to trying to move his Aura before I told him he didn’t need to be focusing on such a big area.” Seungcheol shrugs. From his spot, against the wall opposite the one Hansol is throwing at, Hansol huffs. “Sorry.” Seungcheol offers, not really apologetic, because it was for their own training.

Seungcheol watches as Hansol makes another attempt, and sits back against the wall next to his bed. He’ll try to give more advice if Hansol asks for it, but until then he’ll see what he, and the others, figure out on their own. As he observes Hansol’s head-start at training, he wonders how the other teams are doing.


	26. Responsibility

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again beta read by the lovely jeonkwan (on ao3)

The “no” Jihoon gives is so immediate that Soonyoung has to do a double-take. Even when he does, Jihoon is still standing there, frowning at Soonyoung. Beside them, Soonyoung can see the others trying to angle themselves to see out of the classroom’s door without getting out of their seats. Soonyoung tries to ignore them, worried that the bell is about to ring, to focus on the person in front of him instead.

“What do you mean _no_? At least hear me out.”

“You want me to help Chan.”

“Yes.”

“No.” Jihoon crosses his arms, and sighs. “They’re your teammates, you deal with them.”

“But his Aura-”

“Are you only going to help your teammates if they have Projecting Auras? What if none of them do? I’m helping Seokmin, but I’m not a Strengthening type. You can ask me for advice, I’ll give it to you, but you pass it onto Chan. That’s not my job.”

“Aren’t we… all in this together by now?”

“What about when we graduate?”

Soonyoung falls silent, realizing that Jihoon was right.

“Soonyoung.”

“Yeah?”

“The only time I haven’t seen you try to pass your job as their leader onto someone else was during the first hunt.”

“I have not-” Soonyoung stops, mouth still open, and makes a startled noise in the back of his throat. “Oh my god. I’m the worst.”

“You’re not,” Jihoon assures, pats him on the shoulder, and turns to their classroom. “I’ll give you some notes later that you can use to help him.”

“Thanks…”

Soonyoung is quiet for the entirety of their class. Barely even aware of class happening around him and completely unaware of what it’s about, Soonyoung stares ahead at the wall blankly. He can’t deny what Jihoon said. It is true the more he thought about it. Every time his team needed reassurance, aside from their first hunt, he’d relied on someone else to do it for him. He didn’t have words to give them, and let someone else ‘better suited’ for it deal with what should have been his job. He was their leader, what was he doing?

Soonyoung sighs to himself as the bell rings, and stands. Minghao gives him a look, a silent question of what was wrong, but Soonyoung shakes his head with a smile, letting him know that he was okay. Minghao frowns at him, still looking a little worried, but nods in understanding, and turns to say something to Junhui.

Chan comes to stand at Soonyoung’s side, but stays quiet until Soonyoung himself speaks. “So… Jihoon isn’t going to help you.”

“Oh.”

“You’ll have to deal with me.” Soonyoung offers a smile, trying to reassure them both. “I’ll do more research. How’s the electricity today?”

“Less obvious, but I keep seeing little sparks. Luckily the teacher hasn’t seemed to notice. Though, he was probably just busy making sure everyone was getting his explanation.”

“What was he talking about, again?”

“Were… you not listening?’

“No?” Soonyoung’s shoulders raise in a nervous shrug and Chan just looks surprised.

“I’ll fill you in.”

 

True to his word, Jihoon gives Soonyoung an organized folder of notes about dealing with harming auras. Alongside that, he glares Soonyoung down, telling him not to just give Chan the notes.

“I’m not that lazy.” Soonyoung defends himself.

 

A week passes. Soonyoung helps Chan figure out how the make the electricity stop, and has Chan meditating daily. He says he’ll help Chan further develop his Aura once Soonyoung has memorized the notes Jihoon has given him.

Soonyoung is sitting on Junhui’s bed, crossed-legged, referencing the notes as he writes down a plan for Chan’s training. Chan, in turn, is sitting on Minghao’s bed across the room from him, eyes closed, doing his daily meditation. Junhui bursts into the room, mouth open ready to say something, when he stops and raises an eyebrow at them.

“We didn’t feel like climbing up to our own beds,” Soonyoung explains, shrugging. “What’s up?”

“Mail.” Junhui holds up a box, presumably containing said mail. “Today is one where we’re supposed to get letters our family has sent us. Of course… most of us aren’t supposed to be here, so it’s likely all for you.”

“Oh, right.” Soonyoung motions for Junhui to come closer and hand the box over. Which Junhui does, before sitting down next to Soonyoung.

“What’s your family like, anyway?”

“Huh? Oh, my moms a doctor, so she was always pretty busy. My dad stayed at home. They’re really supportive.”

“Oh, that’s good.” Junhui turns his attention to Chan, who opens his eyes to look at them. He raises an eyebrow, Junhui shrugs, the eyebrow is lowered, and Chan sighs. Soonyoung pats Junhui on the shoulder, drawing his attention back to Soonyoung.

“They’ll have no choice but to be supportive when you become a great hunter.”

“Yeah.”

True to expectation, all of the letters contained in the box addressed to their dorm are for Soonyoung. All of the letters being just two letters, one from each of his parents. His mother asks how he’s been, if he’s got a nice team, and if he’s getting along with them. His father asks if he’s made friends, if he’s safe, and how the food is. Soonyoung doesn’t realize he’s smiling until Minghao enters the dorm and asks why he is.

“Letters from his parents,” Chan says, shrugging.

“Oh?” Minghao pushes Chan over, so he can sit next to him.

“They’ve asked about my team.” Soonyoung grins waving the letters around. “I’m going to tell them so much.”

“Hopefully not _too_ much.”

“Hey, what do you take me for?” Soonyoung feigns offense, clutching his chest. “I’m not going to tell them anything that’ll get you caught.”

 _“I’m a leader,”_ is the first thing Soonyoung tells his parents. Following that, he writes about each of his team members, then about how he, himself, has been doing in the two weeks he’s been at the academy.

Once he’s written the letter, he leaves the dorm to hand it over so it can be mailed to his parents. On his way back, he catches sight of Jihoon and Seokmin in the distance. It doesn’t take but a moment of standing there to see that they’re training. Soonyoung stands there and just watches. He wonders how many days of the week they spend out there, getting Seokmin used to his Aura. Wonders if his own irresponsibility is making his team fall behind.

“Soonyoung!” Startled, Soonyoung spins to see Junhui running up to him.

“Yeah?”

“We were wondering what happened to you.” Junhui glances between Soonyoung and where he had been staring. “Something wrong?”

“No, sorry, I got distracted. Let’s head back.” Soonyoung pats Junhui on the arm, passing by quickly so as to not allow the other to ask anymore questions.

 

Chan is a quick learner. It doesn’t take long after Soonyoung starts training him to use, rather than just suppress, his Aura for Chan to be able to produce large amounts of electricity. Soonyoung has the foresight to set up small metal rods, and stand a good distance away, but it’s still startling how quickly Chan takes to creating sparks.

There’s no control. Chan can’t decide what the target of his electricity is, just how much of it there is. Though there’s a possibility it may not be possible to control beyond that, Soonyoung promises they’ll work on it. Until then, Soonyoung has Chan test how much he can do before he’s running too low on Aura to use.

Three five-second long large bursts of electricity is the limit. After the third attempt, which covers a few feet around him, he’s got his hands on his knees and is shaking his head when Soonyoung asks if he can do any more.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Chan manages to lift his head, to look up at Soonyoung.

“Okay,” Soonyoung repeats with a smile. “We’re done for today, you did great. You should head back.” Soonyoung gives Chan a thumbs up, and moves to retrieve the metal rods he’d stuck into the ground. Next, Soonyoung decides, he’ll test how long Chan can maintain small sparks instead. It’s not until Soonyoung turns to leave, that he realizes Chan had decided to wait for him.

For some reason he can’t quite place, that makes Soonyoung smile again. “Are we training more tomorrow?” Chan asks. He seems excited.

“That depends on how you’re feeling.” Soonyoung shrugs. “If you’re well enough, sure.”

 

The teams get together again, to decide when they’ll go about unlocking their next team members Auras, since their teachers forewarned them that they’d be going on another hunt in two weeks. This time they’ll be completely separate from the other teams. Collectively, they decide to do it at the end of the week. Which leaves Soonyoung a few days to figure out who’s next. Not that he needs it; one fight was enough to realize Minghao would benefit most from having an Aura. Despite having a ranged weapon, Minghao prefers to be close to an enemy. It doesn’t take much thought to make that choice.

“Alright, Minghao, you’re next,” Soonyoung announces to the room, clapping his hands together at the end of his sentence. “While we’re at that, you two-” he points at the two remaining members of their team, “-should take the time to make any adjustments to your weapons you haven’t yet.”

“Sure thing.” Junhui nods. Chan, from his place, gives a thumbs up before returning to what he was doing.

“Okay,” Minghao agrees, quietly. At first, Soonyoung thinks something is wrong, but then he actually looks at Minghao. He’s grinning, and Soonyoung is relieved.

“For now,” Soonyoung starts, “get some rest.”

When he gets a chorus of agreements from his team, he smiles. At the very least, they listen to him. Small steps. His progress to being a good leader may not be much, but he’s making progress. Soonyoung nods to himself. He’ll be a good leader eventually.


	27. The Second Step

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again beta read by the lovely jeonkwan (on ao3)

It’s not as if Seungcheol has to think about the decision much. Mingyu is the logical choice to have his Aura unlocked next. Yet Mingyu seems genuinely surprised when Seungcheol says as much.

“Me?”

“Yes, of course.”

Mingyu pauses, realization dawning upon him. Then he grins and throws his hands into the air. “I’m next!”

“Yes,” Seungcheol repeats, laughing.

“I’ll finally be able to catch up,” Mingyu says quieter and probably to himself, though Seungcheol is able to hear him. The statement gets a frown from Seungcheol. There’s a realization setting in that he never actually talked to Mingyu about the possibility of falling behind, despite having planned to.

“Mingyu.”

“Yes?”

“You know you’re _not_ falling behind, right?” Seungcheol watches confusion fill the other’s face before sighing. “You’re only as far behind as any of our teammates are, Hansol included. You’re not falling behind just because I didn’t unlock your Aura first. In fact, you’re more prepared than some of the first years were when they got here; just look at Wonwoo. Don’t tell him I said that.”

“I- I know that.”

“You do?’

“Logically, I do. It’s hard not to feel like I am, though. Especially since Hansol’s Aura was unlocked.”

“I understand.” Seungcheol offers Mingyu a smile. “That just means I have to remind you of it more.”

“Please don’t.” Mingyu bites his teeth together in a forced smile, but ends up laughing because Seungcheol begins to laugh at how ridiculous his expression is.

 

Jihoon stares at Seungkwan. It would be unsettling had Seungkwan actually noticed, but he was preoccupied tying the Crystals he bought for his arrows, in place of arrowheads. It’s strangely satisfying to watch, and Jihoon finds it easy to think about other things while he observes.

Once again, he has to choose a teammate to have their Aura unlocked, but unlike the first time, it’s a less obvious choice. Seungkwan probably makes the least sense, based on weapon alone. Jeonghan and Jisoo, though, both have equal reason to need their Aura, so it stands that he’s having a hard time figuring out which to go with.

“You’re staring.” Seungkwan’s voice draws him out of this thoughts, and Jihoon blinks, realizing he had stopped paying attention, though, he couldn’t use that as an excuse for his intense gaze in the first place.

“You’re good at that.”

“Can’t buy arrows so far out in the kingdom, so.” Seungkwan says, shrugging instead of finishing his sentence. Jihoon assumes Seungkwan means he had to learn to make them. “Something up?” Seungkwan asks, eyes still on his weapon.

“Thinking about whose Aura is next.”

“Jeonghan’s?”

“Why Jeonghan?” Jihoon tilts his head, Seungkwan shrugs.

“During our first hunt Jisoo lost his weapon twice, so…” Seungkwan shrugs, as if unsure how he wants to end the sentence. “I guess because of that I thought you’d reassess what you’d be having him doing, and he wouldn’t face monsters as directly as Jeonghan.”

“That’s… really well thought out.” Jihoon leans back on his bed, humming in thought. “You make good points, I think that is what I’ll do.”

“Wait, really!?” Seungkwan drops his Crystals onto his bed and looks up with wide, excited eyes.

“Yes.” Jihoon is surprised by just how shocked Seungkwan sounds. Seungkwan grins, looking proud, and returns to his task. Jihoon can’t help but smile. He’d thought it before, but seeing the reaction, he realizes he should give Seungkwan more credit. Not just within his own thoughts, but aloud as well.

 

Soonyoung goes first. The teams gather in his team’s dorm, crowding it, while he unlocks Minghao’s Aura. While Minghao is only prepared as he can be without knowing how it will feel, Soonyoung is more prepared this time, having done this once already. Minghao takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, then nods. Soonyoung reaches for him, hands resting on his shoulder and head, then focuses his Aura out at Minghao.

While Soonyoung has felt himself being pushed back by Chan’s Aura, he’s wholly unprepared for just how forcefully his Aura bounces back at him when Minghao’s unlocks. Soonyoung finds himself not only on the ground, but a few steps further than if he had just fallen to the ground from where he was. As if they’re all processing the situation, no one moves except Minghao. Minghao stumbles back, falling onto his own bed with a shaky breath.

“I didn’t expect that,” Soonyoung says, finally, breaking the silence of shock that had fallen over the room. Then he’s being helped up by Junhui and Chan, set on Junhui’s bed, and there are questions of “Are you alright?” being thrown at him too quickly to process. “Guys, please, I’m fine just… shut up a minute. Minghao?”

“I feel horrible.”

“See? We’re both fine.” Soonyoung nods, mostly to himself, and lays down. “Just need to rest.”

 

Seungcheol dreads unlocking Mingyu’s Aura, despite knowing it’s necessary. Though it has nothing to do with Mingyu himself, and instead, has everything to do with the memory of unlocking Hansol’s Aura. He tries to push aside any of his worries about the inevitable pain it will cause him when he reaches to unlock Mingyu’s Aura.

It burns and his arms feel sore, but Seungcheol continues to push his Aura at Mingyu until it works. His lungs burn. It’s similar to the feeling of catching a breath of fresh air after accidentally breathing in water. He clutches his chest. Mingyu seems to be in similar distress, coughing and thumping his own chest with his fist.

“Are you both okay?” Wonwoo asks, as he and Hansol help Seungcheol and Mingyu sit down.

“I think so,” Mingyu answers, before coughing again.

“We will be.” Seungcheol tries to give a reassuring smile, though they don’t seem assured by it.

“I expected this to be more like last time,” Hansol muses, looking between Mingyu and Seungcheol, “but it seems really different.”

“A result of different people and different Auras.”

 

With how the other teams fared, Jihoon finds himself doubting if this will be any easier than last time. When he calls Jeonghan over, the other raises an eyebrow at him, and he realizes he’d never actually told Jeonghan that he is next. “You’re up, come here.”

Even with Jeonghan in front of him, Jihoon doesn’t feel any less nervous about the situation. Still, he doesn’t hesitate to reach out and close his eyes. At the very least, it’s easier to push his Aura out in the right way, and he has a less difficult time keeping his Aura from taking shape.

Jeonghan stumbles back, shivering, while Jihoon feels like he can’t breath. It takes a moment for him to register that it has worked, hence his current state, and another for him to realize he’s being led to sit down by his teammates.

“How do you feel?” Seokmin asks, expression concerned.

“I’m okay.”

“Jeonghan?” Jisoo helps his aforementioned teammate sit, and Jeonghan shrugs in response before finding his voice.

“Cold.”

“Oh.”

“But I’m fine.”

“If you say so.”

 

When the sickness wears off, everyone fills the largest team’s dorm again. For those who didn’t have their Auras unlocked, it somehow doesn’t feel like it’s as big of a deal as it was the first time. For Jeonghan, Mingyu, and Minghao, it feels like a much bigger deal. For everyone, it starts to seem like a bigger deal when all of their Auras come up with the same colour on the Aura tester: red. Harming Auras.

“Why am I not surprised Jeonghan has a harming Aura?” Seokmin asks. Jeonghan kicks him, and the others laugh.

“Why is my team full of harming types?” Soonyoung sighs, shaking his head. Minghao pauses, opens his mouth to respond, then decides to just glare instead.

“How do you feel about it, Mingyu?” Seungcheol asks, glancing at the other. Mingyu, for his part, is silent. After a moment’s pause, he looks up from the floor.

“I don’t know.”

“I know they just got up,” Jisoo starts, “but maybe we- and they- should all get some rest? They only have another couple weeks to get used to their Auras.”

Agreement fills the room, and everyone retires to bed after yet another long day.

 

Seungcheol isn’t very happy when he wakes up to water dripping on his face. Nor is he happy to realize its source if from above him, also known as Mingyu’s bunk. Seungcheol rolls out of his own bed, tries to ignore any worries about what it is, and climbs up so he can see Mingyu. The sight he’s greeted with is Mingyu sitting up, staring at his hands, as water drips from them and onto his bed. It’s a slow drip- a small amount- so Seungcheol guesses it has been going on for a while by now.

“Mingyu?”

“Yeah?” Mingyu looks up, concern covering his features. Seungcheol smiles, patting Mingyu’s arm.

“You okay there?”

“It won’t stop.”

“It’s your Aura.”

“I figured that much.” Mingyu frowns, glancing back down at his hands. He looks just the slightest bit miserable.

“So you can _make_ it stop.” Seungcheol climbs up so he can sit on the bed, careful to avoid the wet spot on it.

“I don’t know how.”

“You remember how the Aura tester worked, right? That feeling you had to focus on, the one you felt when your Aura was unlocked? Picture that.” Seungcheol waits, watches Mingyu close his eyes and take a few deep breaths before he speaks again. “Now…”

“Now?”

“Picture…” Seungcheol trails off, trying to think of something that will help. “A drop of water.”

“Okay.”

“Surround the water with whatever image you can think of for how your Aura felt. Hold it together.”

“I… don’t know what that’s supposed to mean.” Mingyu sighs. His face scrunches up in concentration despite his words. The water stops.

“It stopped.” Seungcheol tells him.

“It did?” Mingyu opens his eyes, looks down at his hands, then grins. “It did!”

The water starts again. The disappointed noise Mingyu gives in response to the water almost makes Seungcheol laugh. “Hey, it’ll take awhile to get a hang of.”

“Can water actually help me fight monsters?”

“Huh?”

“My Aura. It’s not going to help me any, is it?”

“It could. We don’t know exactly how you can use it, yet. We know it’s water, obviously, but the details of it are unclear. Have you ever seen something cut by water?”

“Like, jet streams of water?’

“Yeah, think of what that would do to a monster!”

“You think I could manage that?” Mingyu doesn’t look convinced, even when Seungcheol nods.

“Of course. This is its smallest form, the one you can’t control yet. When you get control, you’ll be able to do so much more. Trust me.”

“Okay.” Mingyu nods. Seungcheol smiles. Mingyu closes his eyes again, takes a deep breath, and goes back to trying to control his Aura. Deciding to leave him to that, Seungcheol climbs down from Mingyu’s bunk. He’s not getting back to sleep, especially since his bed is wet. Instead, Seungcheol leaves the dorm, muttering to himself about food.

Now that he’s sure Mingyu is fine, exhaustion and hunger catch up with him, so he’s not really paying attention to his surroundings. He moves based on the muscle memory he’s built from the buildings in the past few weeks. That’s his excuse when, upon leaving his dorm, he nearly runs directly into Soonyoung.

“Oh, hey.” Soonyoung raises a hand, slow and sluggish. Seungcheol guesses he’s just as tired as Seungcheol is.

“You’re up.”

“You too.”

“Mingyu’s Aura manifested.”

“Ah,” Soonyoung nods, “I see.”

“Why are you up?”

“Food.” A yawn. “Is that where you’re going?”

“Yep.”

“Together, then?”

“Sure.” Seungcheol nods, and they begin their slow walk to the building where they can get food. It’s not until they have food in front of them Seungcheol speaks again. “How’d you deal with Chan?”

“Hm?”

“His Aura, it’s Harming, too.”

“Ah. Jihoon gave me notes about harming Auras to work off of. It’s mostly a lot of the basic Aura stuff, for getting used to it. You know what I’m talking about? There’s just some things that Harming Auras deal with that ours don’t.”

“Like spontaneously having it activate.”

“Yeah, like that.” Soonyoung laughs. “I’ve pretty much memorized what I was given, though, and come up with plans for Chan- and now Minghao- so if you want my notes, you can have them.”

“Thanks, Soonyoung.”

“No problem.”

When Seungcheol returns to his dorm, bringing food and notes with him, Mingyu is gathering up their sheets and looking proud of himself. He looks up and Seungcheol with a grin.

“Look! No water.”

“Good job!”

“I can only make it stop for like a minute though.”

“Still, that’s really quick progress. Now put that down. I’ll deal with our bedding, you eat.”

Seungcheol hands over the containers of food he’s carrying once Mingyu has dropped their blankets on the ground. Seungcheol glances down at the papers in his hands, the notes Soonyoung has given to him, before putting them down and going to pick up their blankets.

If Mingyu is already making such quick progress, he wonders if he’ll need Seungcheol’s help at all.


	28. The Harming Auras

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again beta read by the lovely jeonkwan (on ao3)

Minghao shows a surprising lack of signs that his Aura is doing something that’s specific to Harming types. Soonyoung- and Chan, for that matter- wonder if, somehow, the tester was wrong. Minghao himself seems almost disappointed when he’s able to get up in the morning, sleep having been undisturbed by his Aura.

Then he tries to grab a new shirt for the day, and instead of picking it up- like he expects- it goes flying away from him. The most he can manage is to mutter to himself, shocked. ‘’Well, that’s new.”

“Huh, I wonder what that means your Aura is?” Soonyoung muses, leaning over the railing of his bed to look at Minghao. “So it just… went flying?”

“Yep.” Minghao reaches for it again, this time, picking up. He turns, ready to leave the room and head for the dorms’ bathrooms- which are a hallway away from their dorm room- when a paper falls off of their wall as soon ashe gets close. He blinks, surprised. He’d nearly forgotten they never took those down after Jihoon’s visit to teach them.

“This could be a problem. Whatever it is, it’s getting in your way.”

“Everything’s moving away from me.” Minghao muses.

“Any ideas?”

“Give me a day. I’ll figure it out.”

 

Jihoon would like to pretend this is the worst way he’s ever woken up. He can’t, though, because he has a harming type Aura himself, and waking up half frozen to his bed was a fairly unfortunate way to wake. Still, between Seungkwan and Seokmin screaming, and Jeonghan having a fight with his hair, this is a good second. Jisoo seems to be the only taking any initiative, trying to get Jeonghan to stop arguing with his hair long enough to stop the gusts of wind his Aura is sending around the room.

It’s not as if they’re terribly powerful, being just the basic manifestation of his Aura, but it is throwing things around. Hence Jeonghan’s hair hitting him in the eyes. It’s also making it rather hard to sleep, feeling as if someone is opening and closing the door over and over again. Jihoon groans, sitting up, and tries to form a proper sentence in his freshly woken state.

“Jeonghan, I swear to god, if you don’t stop.”

“I’m trying!”

“Think of the exact opposite of what is happening now. Focus really hard on that.”

“I am.”

“No, you’re not.”

“It’s hard to focus with those two shouting every other second!” Jeonghan huffs, throwing his hands up.

“Seungkwan, Seokmin, since you’re up, why don’t you go get food?”

“For the dorm, or just ourselves?” Seungkwan asks, dropping from his bed and onto the floor. He gives a startled noise when a jacket- which had been slung over one of their bunks- flies at him.

“Yourselves,” Jihoon says, sighing. “We’ll join you when this stops.”

With the newfound silence due to Seungkwan and Seokmin leaving, Jeonghan has a slightly easier time focusing. He’s still not having an easy time, by any means, but it’s certainly better than it was. Jihoon stands, yawning, and motions Jisoo away from Jeonghan and closer to him.

“Did anything break?”

“I don’t think so? Anything that would have broken was heavy enough to stay in place.”

“Okay.” Jihoon nods. “You can go ahead to eat too, if you want.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

Jisoo nods, sends a worried glance between the remaining two, then leaves. Jeonghan sighs from where he is. Biting his lip, Jeonghan makes an annoyed noise when he hears something else fall over. Jihoon frowns, and takes a seat next to him on Jeonghan’s bed.

“Listen.”

“Yeah?” Jeonghan opens an eye to look at Jihoon.

“It seems like wind, right? So think about earth.”

“Earth?”

“When I first woke up after my Aura unlocked, I was half-frozen to my bed. So, I thought a lot about fire, since that was the opposite of ice. That worked for me. I don’t know if it’ll work for you, but you can try, right?”

“Yeah. Okay. Earth.” Jeonghan closes his eyes again. After a few deep breaths, as his face scrunching up in concentration, the gusts of air stop.

“See?”

“Huh. It actually worked.”

“Don’t sound so surprised.”

 

Soonyoung is having a pretty good day. Minghao, on the other hand, is not having such a great day. In fact, Soonyoung guesses, he’s having a pretty terrible one. Nearly everything Minghao reaches for moves away from him. Soonyoung would like to argue that it’s at least something specific they can pinpoint about his Aura, so it’s not all bad. Minghao doesn’t seem to be in the mood for that argument, however.

The cup Minghao is reaching for falls over and he slams his head against the table in front of him. Soonyoung can see students- older ones, who he doesn’t recognize- looking over in amusement and curiosity. If he was honest, Soonyoung nearly forgot other students even attended their school.

“I changed my mind, I don’t want an Aura.” Minghao is quiet enough to not be heard by anyone else, but Soonyoung still looks around worriedly at the words.

“Well you can’t undo it now. Besides, if you didn’t have it, you’d never become a hunter.”

“Just focus on how cool this could be once you master it!” Junhui pats Minghao on the back in hopes of comforting him. All he gets in response is a glare.

“Hey,” Soonyoung glances up at Mingyu’s voice, “how are you guys?”

“Where’s your team?”

“That wasn’t an answer.” Mingyu sighs. “Asleep, mostly. How’s Minghao?”

“I’m suffering.” Minghao sighs, sitting up and removing his head from the table. “You?”

“None of my clothes are dry. I keep making water. So not great.”

“I suddenly feel better.” Minghao sighs.

“Great, man, I’m glad I could help you feel better by being more unfortunate.”

“Anyway,” Soonyoung speaks, drawing their attention to him, “why are you here?”

“Oh! Right. Jeonghan had an idea, but he’s not confident it’ll be okay for him to be here with his Aura, so he sent me.” Mingyu shrugs. Soonyoung is left with even more questions.

“Why you? What idea?” Junhui asks, tilting his head.

“Since all three of us who just got our Auras unlocked-” Mingyu lowers his voice with the last words then continues louder- “are the same, he thought it’d be good for us to train together. Jihoon seemed to think it was a good idea, too, and offered to help us if the other leaders came as well.”

“Oh?” Soonyoung hums, nodding. “I’m guessing Seungcheol already agreed.”

“Yep.”

“I’ll agree if Chan can come too. Since it’d be good for him, as well.”

“I second that!” Chan speaks, for the first time since Mingyu arrived, with a mouth full of food.

“Don’t talk with food in your mouth.”

“Sorry, Soonyoung.”

 

The forests near the school are good for out-of-class training, and it’s where the freshmen gather. Those with harming Auras, as well as the leaders, stay near the edge of the area, ready to work on control. Meanwhile, the others take the time to work with their weapons.

Mingyu, Jeonghan, Minghao, and Chan sit in a line on the ground. The leaders of each team stand in front of them. Seungcheol and Soonyoung share a look from behind Jihoon, then both look at him, as if expecting something. Jihoon sighs, feeling their eyes on him.

“Soonyoung?” Jihoon asks, turning to him. Soonyoung, for his part, jumps having not expected to be addressed.

“Yes?”

“How far along is Chan’s training?”

“He can produce electricity around himself in large amounts for five seconds at a time, about three times.” Soonyoung produces the information as if he’s reading something out to the group, despite having nothing to have read.

“Okay.” Jihoon nods, turning the the four in front of him. “So, you should all separate a bit, and try to match that. We’ll keep track of how much you’re capable of.”

“I don’t know if that’ll work for me.” Minghao sighs, slouching. “It’s not an element.”

“So I heard. We’re going to see how far you can throw things.” Jihoon reaches into a pocket, and pulls out an eraser. “You can keep track of distance yourself easier than they could keep track of amounts.”

“If you feel at all sick, stop!” Seungcheol adds, quickly, when Minghao stands to take the eraser. “We don’t need any of you overworking yourselves.”

 

Chan manages a six-second burst of electricity. He doesn’t seem to realize it, and turns to Soonyoung expecting the usual five seconds. Soonyoung, from place a good ten feet away, holds up six fingers and Chan’s face lights up. Soonyoung is startled when Chan comes barreling at him, and barely keeps from falling over when Chan jumps at him, hands grabbing his arms.

“Six seconds!” Chan cheers, grinning. “If I can do that two more times, I’ll have beaten past me!”

“Right.” Soonyoung can’t help but smile, patting Chan on his shoulder. “Don’t overdo it if you can’t, though.”

“I know, I know. Don’t worry.”

 

It’s as if someone has taken a still image of rain. That’s the only way Seungcheol can describe the space around Mingyu. Mingyu has his eyes closed, trying to concentrate. Seungcheol considers calling out to him, in order to ask if he can do anything with the water, but Mingyu beats him to it. Opening his eyes, Mingyu lifts his hands- Seungcheol doubts the action does anything, but if helps Mingyu concentrate he’s not going to say as much- and the water goes flying. It doesn’t make it far, gravity pulling it down and air resistance keeping it from being dangerous. Yet, Seungcheol grins when Mingyu turns his attention to him.

“That was great! If I was right next to you, you probably could have hurt me.” Seungcheol waits for a reaction. Mingyu frowns at him. “Which means if I was a monster…”

“I could have done some damage!”

“Exactly!” Seungcheol lifts his hand to give a thumbs up. “Want to try again? This time see if you can do it with your eyes open the whole time.”

“Okay!”

 

Jeonghan expects to maybe see the effect of his Aura on the grass around him, or maybe for it to whip his hair around some more. The mini tornado he creates is startling enough that he stops as soon as it forms. Jihoon looks rather impressed, if not a bit freaked out, himself.

“Was that as long as you could manage?”

“No,” Jeonghan admits, sighing. “I was just startled.”

“Okay.” Jihoon nods. “Remember, your Aura can’t hurt you. If it was dangerous, it would automatically stop with or without you wanting it to. So don’t worry so much about its effects.”

“What about… everyone else?”

“If worst comes to the worst, I can probably make a wall.” Jihoon looks around himself. “In fact, why don’t you move a little further away, in case I need to.”

“Sure, right.” Jeonghan nods, taking a few steps backwards. “Okay, I’m going to… try again.”

“Go for it, then.”

 

Minghao looks down at the eraser in his hand, frowning. With a sigh, he lifts his hand, holding it loosely in his palm, and holds his palm away from him. “Outward force, huh?”

That had been the conclusion he and Soonyoung had come to about his Aura. Yet, that just made trying to picture it really difficult. Minghao breathes in, trying to picture it as if his Aura is something surrounding him, and he’s making its area larger, pushing anything else away from him. He breaths out, and the eraser goes flying. Minghao tries not to be too excited that his line of thought worked, and when the eraser lands further away than he likely could have thrown it.

“Way to go, Minghao!” He trips, stumbles a few steps forward, as he is about to go pick it up. Turning, he raises an eyebrow at Soonyoung who grins at him from a distance.

“Aren’t you supposed to be watching Chan!?”

“I can multitask!”

“No, you really can’t.” Minghao’s words go unheard, due to the distance between them. He turns his attention away from Soonyoung, and back to retrieving the eraser so he can try out his Aura again.

 

With the decision to return at the “same time, tomorrow” everyone heads back to their dorms upon Minghao, Chan, Jeonghan, and Mingyu running out of Aura for the day. They have a lot of work to do before their next hunt, and not much time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh boy it's been a while. sorry about that! well... i'm not sure anyone was waiting on it, but assuming you were, sorry!  
> It's entirely my fault. This story is the most planned out, of any i'm working on, and in addition to that, it's also got a very large cast to deal with, so it takes longer for me to get through chapters than anything else i'm writing. (well, another story takes a long time but that one is because i'm terrible)
> 
> but, yeah, i'm sorry! I actually had the draft of this chapter for a while, but never sent to it my beta reader. Whoops.
> 
> also: sorry for accidentally updating this with a chapter from a different fic for like 2 seconds. i immediately realized and deleted it (right after having a miniature anxiety attack) but still.


	29. Reality of Hunts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a real hunt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey welcome to plot twist of the century I'm the /worst/ and did all the editing myself this time because I was impatient. (To no fault of my beta, who's probably really busy and hadn't seen my messages yet)
> 
> Anyway, yeah. But, I think this is still better than the chapters written /before/ I got a beta reader so. it's fine.
> 
> sorry it's been like 4 months ha I'm awful but also was doing commissions.

On the day of their next hunt each team is herded into a van, and taken to different places. They’ve trained together everyday up until this point, but anxiety seems to settle over all of them, anyway. 

Jihoon sighs, starring out of the window as their professor drives them. They’ve already been told they wont get any help from their professor if something goes wrong. It’s all up to them. There’s a very real chance of injury or even death. Jihoon turns in his seat, to look over his team. He can see their worry, but can’t offer any comfort. It’s not something a simple reassurance can fix.

At the van coming to a stop, Jihoon looks back out of the window. They aren’t so far from the school that it took a long time, but they are far enough for it to be out of view. They sit on the edge of a forest, where it merges into a beach. The ocean is calm, the weather warm. Everyone steps out of the van, and their professor looks them over before speaking.

“This is a real hunt. Unlike the last time, this area isn’t enclosed. Nor do we have camera’s set up, so we can keep track of you. I already said this, but I’ll reiterate: you’re on your own. Except, you still have each other. There’s a monster that’s been spotted multiple times around here. It’s red, approximately eight feet tall, while walking on four legs, has black eyes, and is said to look very deer-like. This is the monster you’re hunting. However long it takes you to find, and eliminate, it, is how long this test will go on.”

The team shares looks, understanding falling over them. Even if it takes days. This is a real hunt.

 

They’re two days into their hunt, when they realize how much work this task actually is. The monster hasn’t been forced into a smaller area, convenient to find like last time, so they have to actually put to practice the skills of an animal hunter. The first step to that, is trying to find tracks, or other signs of he monster, but that’s more difficult in actuality than it is in theory. It’s luck, really, that they find tracks. They're a bit further into the forest, and far further south, than they initially arrived at, when they do.

From there, most of them don’t actually know how to follow those tracks, or how to tell if they’re new. “For people calling ourselves Hunters, we kind of… suck.” Jeonghan is the one to voice their thoughts, and Jihoon sighs.

It’s Seungkwan who laughs at them- drawing their attention- and moves to get a closer looks at the tracks. “I guess you should be grateful I’m here!”

“Why’s that?”

“Oh,” Jihoon mutters, realization setting in. “Seungkwan lived near the edge of the kingdom, he had to hunt for food.”

“Yep!” Seungkwan grins, spinning around to face the team. “So I can’t say anything for _sure _,__  but it seems like these are pretty new. If we follow them, we might be able to catch up, or at least figure out how fast it’s moving or what it’s doing. Monsters aren’t animals so it’s a bit different, but I think this’ll work!”

With nothing else to go on, and a certain amount of confidence in Seungkwan, the group sets out, following the tracks.

 

Rather than finding the monster itself, the first real evidence that they might be able to catch up to it, comes four hours later. There have been, every other minute, complaints from the group to each other about all the walking, and exhaustion, so this evidence would probably be relief if it wasn’t just… disappointing.

The damage they find, at least, isn’t to the detriment to any humans, but that doesn’t make what they find- a fallen birds nest- any better. It must have fallen quite a ways, the nest itself and the eggs that were in it are both broken, the never-to-be mother of the nest, a hawk, dead next to it. There’s no real debate if the monster is responsible or not, as there are large hoof-prints messily strewn over the ground, showing it stopped here- likely as it attacked the nest- for some amount of time.

Seokmin gags and turns away from the sight, something which Jihoon notes. Seungkwan is shockingly silent, hand over his mouth, and Jisoo, Jeonghan, and Jihoon share a look, waiting for Seungkwan to share whatever he’s thinking about.

“This is pretty fresh.”

“What-” Seokmin starts, clearing his throat- “makes you say that?”

“It doesn’t smell as much as it would if it was old.” Seungkwan shrugs, dropping his hand. The group pauses, as if considering his words. He’s right, Jihoon realizes. If this had happened much longer ago, the tell-tale sign would be the stench of the dead animal. Something mostly absent from the scene.

“So we can catch up!”

“Not if we stand around here talking about it.” Jeonghan huffs, setting forward without any other comments. The others pause for a moment, before following.

“Seungkwan.” Jihoon motions the other towards himself, and Seungkwan falls into step next to him, eyebrow raised.

“Yeah?”

“When we get back to school, how do you feel about giving some lessons to the team?”

“Lessons? Me?” Seungkwan’s incredulous tone is second only to the confusion on his face. “You want me to teach them something?!”

“Clearly being capital-h Hunters requires more normal hunting skills than any of us really thought about, and you have those.”

“Well, yeah.” Seungkwan pauses, as if considering this, then grins. “I guess since I’m the only one you can ask, and I am pretty great at this stuff, I can offer my knowledge to you _poor, unfortunate teammates_ of mine.”

Jihoon sighs, immediately feeling regret. “Stop.”

 

A loud crack echos out between the trees, and everyone except Jihoon spins around to face it. Jihoon, granted, would have turned towards it under the circumstance where it hadn’t come from so close to him. In fact, he isn’t quite sure when, but he’s gotten quite a distance from his team. Who are all staring at him, wide-eyed.

The trees around them seem to shake, as a red deer-like leg hits the ground with the monster's footsteps. They found it. For being only eight-feet tall, it sure does seem bigger, Jihoon thinks.

Maybe that’s because he’s on the ground, a realization that he only has when he looks down and notices how close to the ground he is. When had that happened? He reaches his arms out, to push himself up, only for pain to shoot through his left arm. Which is broken.

“ _Oh_. The cracking sound was my arm.” Jihoon muses, mind finally catching up with the situation.

The monster, having noticed humans, must have instinctively attacked them when they got close. The rest of his team stares, gazes flickering between Jihoon and the monster, which is much bigger than the other one they’d faced. Something they _knew_ , but was hard to picture until now, with it in front of them.

“Shit. Don’t just stare at it!” Jihoon pulls his arm closer to himself, and pushes himself to his feet. Nothing else seems to be broken, luckily. His words seem to break everyone out of their shock, and into action.

Seungkwan takes a step back, nocking an arrow. A normal one, likely for safety’s sake, and fires while everyone else finds positions. Jeonghan draws his sword as he flanks the monster, and Jisoo rushes forward. Jisoo doesn’t seem to have any real intent to face the monster head-on, but is just trying to keep it’s attention. Seokmin rushes to Jihoon’s side, helping him stand completely.

Jihoon takes a moment to be both surprised and proud of them for acting so quickly and smartly, before focusing on what exactly they’re going to do.

“Seokmin, you have medical supplies with you, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” Seokmin nods, twisting the bag hanging over his shoulders to his front.

“Got a splint?”

“Probably?”

“Check.” Jihoon looks over to the others, while Seokmin searches his bag. Of the few supplies- their weapons aside- they brought, Seokmin had been the only one to bring more than just bandages with him. Something Jihoon regrets, now. “Seungkwan! Get somewhere higher up!”

“Okay!” Seungkwan doesn’t face Jihoon when he responds, but turns around to fumble his way up into a tree.

“I shouldn’t have to tell you, but stay away from it’s legs!” Jihoon turns back to Seokmin, ignoring whatever response Jisoo or Jeonghan might have. Seokmin fumbles to pull out everything needed to make a splint, but Jihoon ignores the disorganization, relieved that Seokmin has what he needs.

“We don’t- we’re not medically trained,” Seokmin mutters, worried.

“Since when has a lack of training stopped any of you?” Jihoon slowly stretches his arm out, surprised at how little it actually hurts. “Well, it’s numb. Wonder if that’s bad.”

While Seokmin and Jihoon try to set the latter’s arm, and apply the splint, another cracking sound echos out. This one, though, is distinctly different from the cracking of bones, being more like a whip cracking.

Then pink smoke starts slowly flowing out of a wound on the monsters back. Jisoo spins in Seungkwans direction, clearly startled. “Warn us!”

“Sorry!” Seungkwan actually manages to sound sheepish, despite the grin on his face. “But look! I was right to choose wind crystals!”

The monster charges in Seungkwan’s direction, and Seungkwan jumps from his place in a tree, onto another tree with little-to-no grace, scraping his hands on the new branch and winching as he pulls himself up. Jihoon is suddenly reminded that half of his team are without their Aura’s, and that the monster was strong enough to completely _bypass_ his Aura to break his arm.

Jihoon pulls his arm back to him as soon as it seems like they’ve figured the whole splint thing out, and uses his Aura to apply a slight layer of ice and stop swelling. “Jisoo!”

“Yeah?”

“Stay away from the monster.”

“But-”

“It _broke my arm_! And you don’t have your Aura.” Jihoon holds Jisoo’s eyes, until the other reluctantly nods.

“What should I do, then?”

“Help Seungkwan out of that tree, for starters.” Jihoon takes a moment to find Jeonghan, and then calls out to him. “How do you feel about jumping out of trees?”

“Like that’s a stupid idea?”

“Great, what if I add that you jump from a tree, onto the monster.”

“Why would I do that?!”

“It can’t attack you there!”

Jeonghan stares Jihoon down, as if expecting him to change is mind. When it’s clear he wont, Jeonghan sighs, and nods.

“If I die I’ll haunt you until _you_ die!” Jeonghan sheaths his sword, and starts climbing a nearby tree. While he does that, Seungkwan climbs down from where he was. The monster, seemingly unaffected from running head-first into the tree Seungkwan had jumped away from, turns around. Its stature, and form, make its turn around slower, but it’s still turned to face Seungkwan again before he’s managed to get down completely.

“Seokmin.” 

“Yeah?”

“Get your weapon out.” That’s all the warning Jihoon has time to give, really, if he wants to keep the monster from going after his Aura-less teammates. So he reaches for his own weapon, struggles to turn the safety off with his broken arm, and then fires. An explosion gives Seungkwan time to reach the ground, and for Jisoo to reach him, but the monster seems mostly unaffected by it. It does, however, turn around to face Jihoon and Seokmin.

Seokmin and Jihoon both barely escape the full force of the monster, but Seokmin still get’s hit. It’s only because of his shield, that his Aura is able to absorb the force, the shield dampening it just enough. His Aura being a strengthening type may help, too, but Jihoon doesn’t have time to muse on that. Still, Seokmin rolls on the ground for a moment, before jumping back to his feet.

Jihoon, on the other hand, barely stays on his feet, and feels pain shoot through his arm at the sudden movement. Still, he wastes no time stumbling towards Jisoo and Seungkwan, and calling out for Seokmin to try and put distance between himself and the monster.

“Seungkwan.” Jihoon breathes out, trying to steady himself.

“Yeah?”

“Can you- the monsters attention, can you get it?”

“Probably?”

“Stand by where Jeonghan is.”

“Got it.” Seungkwan nods, running in that direction.

“Are you okay?” Jisoo’s worry is appreciated, but Jihoon doesn’t know what to tell him. Even if he _isn’t_ , they don’t have any time to stop and regroup, let alone take care of their wounds.

“Yeah.” Jihoon pauses. “ _Wait_ , Seungkwans’ hands.”

“You think they’ll be a problem?”

“Firing a bow with messed up hands doesn’t sound great, does it?”

“Good point. Should we stop him?”

“It’s a bit late for that.” Jihoon sighs, turning to reassess everyone’s status.

Jisoo, next to him, seems unharmed. Seokmin, now about thirty feet away from where Jihoon stands, is a bit shaky, but otherwise fine. Jeonghan stands in a tree, teen feet up, sword drawn. And Seungkwan has pulled back another arrow, and taken aim.

Seungkwan fires, barely managing to hit. He winces as soon as he does, too, shaking his right hand, as if it will relieve the pain. The monster wastes no time turning towards him, and Seungkwan gets out of the way just in time. Jihoon is so focused on this, he almost misses that Jeonghan has managed his own task, sword stuck into the monster’s back being used to keep from falling off.

“What now?” Jeonghan calls out, head low to avoid the monsters antlers, as it shakes its head- and body in general- to try and remove the person on its back.

“Hold on!”

“Oh, great! Thanks!” Jeonghan’s sarcastic remarks are stopped by him making a startled noise when the monster starts jumping, trying harder to shake him off.

“Seungkwan, go stand behind Seokmin! Seokmin, keep your shield up and your aura activated!”

“Okay!” Seungkwan starts running in Seokmin’s direction. He’s moving slower now, and Jihoon takes a moment to realize just how much he’s had Seungkwan running around. They’re all tried from days of walking, he can’t imagine this helps at all.

“Got it!” Seokmin takes a position, half behind a tree, half just behind his round shield.

“Jisoo.” Jihoon turns to the other, who just nods, waiting for his instruction. “I need you to be ready to attack when I say to, okay? You’re going to be close to it’s legs, so it’s really important that you don’t hesitate.”

“I wont. I promise.” Jisoo, as if to prove his point, draws his weapon and a position ready to attack.

“Okay.” Jihoon nods. “Jeonghan! Now’s a good time to test your aura out!”

“Now?!”

“Yes, Now!” Jihoon sees, just barely, Jeonghan nod. In a moment, two things happen. Jihoon leans down to the ground, and activates his own Aura, creating a wall of ice between himself- and in turn Jisoo- and where Jeonghan and the monster are. The second thing, is a lot of wind kicking up.

While training, Jeonghan’s Aura was mostly just strong winds, without much control. It was something they quickly realized, and addressed. Something they’d been working on since. If Jeonghan could take the force behind all of that wind, and concentrate it more, he’d be able to cut through a lot with the force of wind. The last time they’d trained, he’d only been able to do this once, creating a deep slash in the ground.

This time, he manages it twice. Two slashes, on either side of himself, that run up the sides and head of the monster, are created by the force of his Aura. Something which he has only a moment to be proud of himself for, before he’s falling, his sword having come loose from the monsters back.

Jeonghan has just a moment to take in the distance he is from the ground, as well as the sudden amount of water on it, before he panics. He doesn’t know how to land. Will his Aura be able to absorb all the damage from this fall? What will he do after, if it can’t?

Jeonghan can hear Jihoon yell to someone, and sees Jisoo running in the monsters direction. While he wants to call out, his voice is surprisingly absent. Then, he finds himself rolling down something and onto the ground next to Jihoon. He looks up, and meets Jihoon’s exhaustion-filled face.

“You know, you probably could have used your Aura to slow yourself.” Jihoon sighs. Jeonghan nods, though he hadn’t at all thought about it. Turning, Jeonghan faces what caught him- a ramp of ice- and through it he can see Jisoo slash at one of the monsters legs. The ground is wet, likely from the melting of the wall that had been there a moment before the ramp that caught him took its place.

“Is he going to be okay?” Jeonghan turns back to Jihoon, who shrugs, staring at the ground. “Jihoon?”

“It’s legs are pretty skinny for it’s size, so I thought he’d be able to at least get it to tumble.” It isn’t really what Jeonghan’s concern is, but hearing the idea behind the plan does relieve some of his worry. “You should… go help.”

“Right, okay.” Jeonghan nods, pulling himself to his feet. He feels off balance, the adrenalin that he felt while falling fading and leaving him feeling tired. He pushes himself forward anyway.

Jisoo stumbles away from the monster, as it tries to retaliate against his strikes by kicking at him. It’s only because it’s slowed- presumably because of the damage Jeonghan’s done to it- that he manage to avoid it. Even then, he’s just barely escaping broken bones. The only thing keeping him moving, really, is knowing that he’s _so close_  to cutting through one of its legs.

He hear Jeonghan’s footsteps, before he sees him. Jisoo isn’t sure why, but he feels less worried, with his teammate at his side, joining in his efforts. Maybe, he briefly thinks, it’s because their teamwork on the last monster they faced was what kept them safe, then. Jisoo can hear Seungkwan and Seokmin getting orders yelled at them, but is too focused on not dying, and keeping up his attacks, to process what they’re being told.

Jeonghan manages to strike the same place that Jisoo had previously, which seems to be all that was needed to have the monsters leg snapping. Jisoo has to grab Jeonghan’s arm, tugging him back, to keep the falling monster from crushing the other. They share a moment of triumph, before the monster swings it’s head around, antlers threatening to send them flying.

Seokmin barely tumbles into place between them and the monster, blocking the antlers with his shield, just in time. Realization that this must be what he was being told to do, hits just before Jisoo notices how surprisingly little the force seems to affect Seokmin.

“Hey, you’re using your Aura!”

“Yeah!” Seokmin manages to grin, proud. It hits Jisoo just how little any of them have been smiling since they set out on this hunt. Sure, it’s a serious job- their current states can attest to that- but he realizes just how stressed they all must be, if even the most cheerful of their group weren’t smiling.

Jisoo is broken from his thoughts, by one of Seungkwan’s arrows embedding itself in the back of the monsters head.

“Come on! We’ve nearly got it!” Seungkwan calls out, wiping his hands on his shirt. Jisoo frowns, noticing that it’s blood he’s wiping away, but there’s nothing he can do about that. Instead he turns back to the monster, which hast taken to wildly shaking it’s head back and forth.

“Seokmin, can you help us get closer to it’s neck?”

“I can help one of you, but I don’t think I can protect you both if we’re that close to it.” Seokmin looks back at them, and Jisoo nods.

“Jeonghan?”

“Yeah, I can do it. But why me?” Jeonghan faces Jisoo, eyebrow raised.

“Well I don’t have an Aura unlocked, for one.”

That decides it, it seems, because Jeonghan and Seokmin move forward. Jisoo, in turn, moves back. Without Seokmin in front of him, he’s far too close to the monster for it to be safe. There isn’t much he can do at this point, he realizes. So he makes his way towards Seungkwan, while reaching into his bag. Seokmin may have been the only one to bring more than basic medical supplies, but bandages should be good enough for Seungkwan right now.

Seokmin’s help turns out to be vital to allowing Jeonghan to attack. As, when they’re close enough, Seokmin has to block the monsters mouth- which has a startling amount of teeth- and ends up holding its head up, and away from Jeonghan, with his shield and sword. The sword, he stabs into the monsters jaw. Seokmin didn’t feel exactly ready to be this directly facing a monster, but manages not to give into the fear trying to worm its way to the forefront of his mind. He can feel scared _later_ , when hesitating wont get one of them killed.

It take a total of eight strikes from Jeonghan, before the monster is unable to hold its head up, or use it to try and fight back. Despite knowing monster feels nothing, Seokmin can’t help but feel slightly cruel, as they continue to attack, when the monster is no longer able to fight back. It still take five more strikes, before the monster is beheaded, and it’s body collapses into dust.

Relief settles over the group, as four of the five of them gather around the remains of the monster.

“So… that sucked.” Seungkwan is the first to speak.

“Somehow it felt both easier and _way_ , way harder at the same time?” Jisoo sighs, shaking his head. “I guess it’s because we knew what we were doing, but were still way over powered by it.”

“Well, we won?” Seokmin offers.

“What now?” Jeonghan wait for a response, but no one seems to know what they should do next. “Jihoon- where’s our leader?”

They freeze, then look around the group, realizing their leader is missing. Seokmin is the one to find him, pointing out where Jihoon is sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree. After a moment where concern is echoed across all their faces, they make their way over to him.

“Uh… are you okay?” Seokmin asks, look down at Jihoon with clear worry.

“Yeah? Just… tired.” Jihoon shrugs, before looking up at them. “It broke through my Aura, which means I used a lot of Aura there, considering, and then used it multiple time to create a _lot_  of ice. I’m sort of… just really exhausted, guys.”

“Should we, rest? Now that we won?”

“No, not just yet.” Jihoon shakes his head, and moves to stand. Jisoo helps him to his feet, when it’s clear that the movement is difficult. “We should collect some of it’s dust, as proof we did it, and make our way north.”

“North?” Seungkwan raises an eyebrow and tilts his head.

“Towards the beach? We don’t know that this is the only monster around, and we want to at least be able to see them coming if there are more. Besides, figuring out how to get back to our teachers will be easier that way.”

“Alright.”

“So….”

“Oh, I’ll go get some of that monsters remains.” Jeonghan does just that, while the rest try to figure out which way is north.

“Suns there,” Seungkwan points, “I think it’s closer to sunset by now, so that way.” Seungkwan motions in the direction that must be North, and the group waits for Jeonghan before setting out in that direction.

“Hey, guys?” Seokmin draws their attention, after a few minutes of walking.

“Yeah?” Jisoo glances back at him.

“We did pretty good for a bunch of lying Hunters in training, right?”

Everyone’s silent, most of them unsure if that’s true or not. None of them know well enough what people who are actually supposed to be in their position are like, not really. Though some of them know graduated Hunters, they aren’t sure if they’re at the level of those meant to be Hunters in training yet.

“Yeah, you did.” Jihoon breaks the silence, effectively silencing their doubts. He  _is_ at the level he's supposed to be, after all.

As the group heads north, they wonder how the other teams hunts are going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wholeheartedly promise there wont be this long between this and the next chapter. Though I /do/ want to finish a few more before I post the next, because of uh..... reasons :)


	30. Difficulty Perception

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) see it didn't take as long.

A seven foot wingspan, dark green feathers, and a horned head. These are the descriptors Soonyoung’s team is given of the monster they’re hunting when they’re dropped off on the western side of the forest that their school sits on the edge of. There’s a tiny town- village, really- just south of there- that technically doesn't belong to any of the kingdoms- which has reported the monster’s appearance. Soonyoung can’t help but wonder if the town's residences would be disappointed to know the people appointed to this hunt are students.

As is, it’s been a day and a half, and they are no closer to knowing where to look- or where to even begin- than they were when they arrived. When thinking about the struggles of being a Hunter, they all considered the danger, the fights, but boredom and confusion weren’t things they considered.

A seven foot wingspan of dark, green, feathers, and a horned head. The descriptors that they’d been looking for, and had yet to find even the slightest hint of.

A seven foot wingspan, a horned head, all a dark green colour.

Seven foot wingspan. Green. Horns.

Seven foot. Green. Horns.

Seven. Green. Horns.

The third day of their nearly-aimless hunt comes to a close. If it’s exhaustion, or just disappointed boredom that settles over all of their faces, Soonyoung isn’t sure. What he is sure of, is just how badly this is going. Did hunts usually take this long? Or was it just that they, as students, were unprepared?

And, then, why were students being sent out without being taught the proper way with which to hunt? What purpose did that serve? Were they meant to be learning something from this, or did they all somehow miss lessons already given to them?

Soonyoung stares up at the sky, as much as he can with the trees above blocking his view, and finds himself unable to avoid these questions. What was the point?

“Seven foot wingspan. Green. Has horns,” Soonyoung mutters the words he’s been repeating over and over in his head for the past few days.

“Soonyoung?” Junhui’s calling reminds Soonyoung that the others are there, and trying to get some rest.

“Sorry, did I wake you?”

“No. It’s just: I was thinking.”

“Yeah?”

“Isn’t sending us looking for a green monster, in the forest, kind of cruel for our first real hunt?”

Soonyoung pauses, considering this. It certainly made it harder, especially since it could fly and wouldn’t leave as many noticeable tracks- Soonyoung sits up, facing Junhui. “We’re so dumb!”

“Well… okay.” Junhui raises an eyebrow, silently questioning where the statement had come from.

“It can fly! And it’s _huge_  why would it ever been _under_  the cover of the trees long enough for us to find it?”

“All I’m hearing are more reasons this was a messed up hunt to send us on.” It’s Minghao who speaks, and Soonyoung turns to find both him and Chan awake.

“We’re looking in the wrong place. This wasn’t meant to be this hard.” Soonyoung nods, as if confirming his own thoughts. The others remain silent for a moment, before Chan speaks.

“We should be looking above the trees?”

“Anyone have an idea of how far from the edge of the forest we are?”

“We didn’t start that far from the west edge,” Minghao starts, frowning in thought. “And if there’s a village south of here, we can’t be that far from a clearing.”

“Does that help?” Junhui asks, sitting up.

“Yes. We should start over completely. It’s been seen more than once, so I don’t think it’s going to have gone far.” Soonyoung stands, and points up. “We need to restart, and try looking _above_ the forest. Who wants to climb some trees?”

“No.” Junhui sighs, laying back down.

“I don’t think that was a real question.” Chan shakes his head, rolling over.

“Guys.” Soonyoung sighs. “Whatever, get some rest! We have days to make up for!”

“But why go back? We can climb trees here,” Minghao asks, frowning.

“Because where we started from was closer to the sightings than we are now. They probably _expected_  us to start looking _up_  from the very beginning.”

“If you say so.”

 

They start their journey to back to where they began, the next day. With little enthusiasm. Once they’ve reached the edge of the forest, each take to climbing a tree, and looking around. It does little for them at first, and there’s a doubt that settles over the group that perhaps this method wont work, either. It’s junhui, first, that notices something. It isn’t the monster _itself_ , but a sign of where it may have been. A tree top seemingly crushed and broken by the weight of something. It’s as a good a start as any- and they’re close enough to it that they can reach it within the hour- so they climb down and being the trek.

They are surprising silent, during this, and Soonyoung has to wonder if they’re all disillusioned with the whole hunt, because of their lack of results. Still, there’s a noticeable shift in mood, when they reach their goal and find even _more_  evidence of the monster. Feathers. Large, and a dark green.

“This is _great_  and all, but now what?” Minghao voices what they’re all thinking. Finding evidence of the monster they’re hunting is good, and even helpful. It at least tells them they had the right idea. Yet, on the other hand, it really doesn’t tell them much.

“Isn’t it weird?” Chan picks up one of the feathers, frowning.

“What is?”

“That this was the _only_  tree that looked damaged?”

As if answering his question, another feather flutters to the ground from above them. Its drop is slow, and comes with a dawning realization among the group. This hunt really wasn’t meant to be so difficult. After all, if a monster always returns to the same place, finding it should be easy.

“Move!” Along with Soonyoung’s call, a horrible, screeching noise rings out from above them. They’ve invaded the territory a monster has chosen as it’s own, and that can’t mean good things for them. It’s rare for monsters to choose territory. After all, many are mindless, and those that appear to have any sort of intelligence, usually don’t stay still long; choose to avoid humans more often than smaller one’s do.

Chan stumbles away from the tree, and the entire group tenses, reaching for their respective weapons. Another screeching noise echo’s out, and none of them can help but cover their ears, to block it out.

“What the hell _is_  that?!” Minghao yells, when the noise stops.

“The monster.” Soonyoung looks up as he speaks, but is unable to see the monster through the cover of trees.

“Since when do monsters make _noise_?!”

“Depends on the kind!”

“What do you mean?!”

“Monsters that have mammal features usually can’t, or don’t, make noise.”

“I hate this.” Minghao breathes an annoyed sigh. “Monsters are so confusing!”

“I’m surprised this wasn’t on that test.” Junhui glances at Chan, who shrugs.

“Guess it wasn’t important.”

Any further conversation is cut off by the monster. It breaks through the roof of trees, diving at them. They’re lucky enough not to be in its way, and it comes to stand in front of them, wings pulled close to itself. Despite its height- only six feet tall- it almost looks like a normal bird for the region they’re in. Very owl-like in shape, if you ignore the horns.

“It’s actually kind of pretty,” Junhui mutters, just loud enough that the others hear him.

“Not really the time!” Minghao takes a step back, as he speaks.

The monster, seeming to look over them, pauses before stretching it’s wings out- as much as it can, blocked by trees- and makes another, loud screeching noise. With the lack of distance, it’s even worse to hear.

“It’s yelling is the most dangerous part of it!” Chan screams over the ringing in his ears. The monster then swings one of it’s wings at them, as if trying to hit them with it. Though they all manage- with varying amounts of grace- to avoid being hit, most of them end up on the ground.

“But it can’t really move around, so that’s good!” Soonyoung struggles to stand up straight, being the only one of them not to end up on the ground. “We just need a plan!”

“Isn’t that your job, leader?!” Junhui pulls himself back to his feet.

“I was never a strategist!”

“I-” Chan starts, then seems to second guess whatever he’s going to say.

“You have an idea?” Minghao, the closest to Chan, asks.

“Sort of.”

“Well, what is it?” Soonyoung spins to look at Chan, just as the monster screeches again. “Ah! Shut up!”

“Well,” Chan raises his staff- recently upgraded with Crystals, finally- and then glances at Minghao, “I was thinking, we could make use of our Auras and weapons, specifically. With the others help, too.”

Soonyoung glances between the two, watching as Minghao nods, before looking to Junhui, who shrugs. “I doubt they’ll be able to do much as long as that thing keeps screaming.”

“Then, what?” Junhui tilts his head in silent question, and Soonyoung frowns, thinking.

“If we can just close its mouth- beak- somehow...”

Junhui shifts his gaze to look at the monster- which screams again, as if to display the problem they’re talking about- then at his weapons. “Maybe I could tie it’s beak shut?”

“With the wires?”

“Yeah. Not exactly what I made this upgrade for, but,” Junhui shrugs, ending his statement.

“Okay.” Soonyoung turns back to Minghao and Chan, but they’re silently looking back at him. “What?”

“We already figured our part out,” Chan answers, smiling nervously.

“Alright. I’ll leave that to you two! For now, we’ll try and quiet it.” Soonyoung turns to Junhui, who nods.

Being that Junhui is the only one of them remaining without an Aura, he can’t get too close to the monsters sweeping wings. However, he can only throw his knives so far, now that they have wires. Especially when said wires are the entire purpose of him throwing them at the moment. So He needs to be able to get closer.

Soonyoung hasn’t ever had much chance to use his Aura, really. Projecting Auras are really only useful- outside of the uses all Auras have- when there’s someone else around. Of course he uses it to strengthen his weapon, sometimes, but he also made his weapon with Strengthening Crystals, anyway. So he’s probably more eager to use his Aura than he should be.

Between avoiding the monster’s wings- and its occasional swiping towards them with its talons- and its screeching, Junhui and Soonyoung come up with a more solid idea.

Soonyoung rushes forward, Junhui just behind him, and stops just in range of the monster’s wings. It, in turn, wastes no time swinging one of said wings at them. Soonyoung braces himself with his rapier up, determined not to be knocked back, and Junhui leans against him to help keep him in place. The wing swings at them from their left, and finds itself stabbed through with Soonyoung’s blade. Junhui steps away from Soonyoung, then, to turn to his own task. Meanwhile Soonyoung himself uses one hand- the one not still holding his weapon- to grab a fist-full of the monster’s feathers. Due to its size, this isn’t much, but it also means they aren’t easily pulled out, and Soonyoung is able to- just barely- hold the monster's wing in place. Keeping it from moving further.

His hands will heal, and he isn’t sacrificing the covering of his Aura entirely, so Soonyoung tries to ignore any pain that comes from the monster’s struggling. Soonyoung chooses to focus on pushing his Aura away from himself. Their distance, though only a foot, makes it more difficult, but Soonyoung pushes his Aura out to cover Junhui in case the later gets hit, while Junhui throws the first of his knives into the tree behind the Monster.

Unwilling to just be attacked, the monster screeches again, and brings its other wing down at Junhui. Something which is stopped by a gunshot causing the monster to reel back. Minghao breathes a relieved sigh, seeing that he managed to hit the creature's wing with his shot.

Junhui glances slightly at Soonyoung, who just nods. Then Junhui moves further- just barely out of the range of Soonyoung’s Aura- and ties the wire from the first knife onto the end of another, before throwing the second higher, and further to the right of the first. The monster’s head moves back, just slightly, with the wire under the lower half of it’s beak. It wildly shakes it’s wings, trying to break free, and Soonyoung finds himself thrown into the air.

Junhui takes one worried glance at him, before running in the other direction, avoiding its right wing, in order to get ready for his next throw. Soonyoung braces himself, letting go of his weapon entirely, and hits the ground harshly. Pain shoot through him, head rattled, but he thinks he hasn’t broken anything, at least.

By the time Soonyoung’s head stops spinning, and he’s able to get a grasp of the situation again, Junhui has thrown his next two knives, effectively doing the reverse of the first time, and holding the top half it’s beak in place. It’s not tight enough to keep the monster’s beak shut, entirely, as it lets another screech out, but it’s at least held in place enough for Junhui to finish his task.

Chan sends Soonyoung a worried look, but Soonyoung just shakes his head. He’s fine, and they don’t need to be worried about him at the moment. There isn’t much any of them can do to help Junhui, either. Though they do their best from a distance to keep him from being hit, they need to be ready for their part. So Soonyoung leaves them all to their current tasks, and takes to looking for his weapon. It’s no longer embedded in the monster’s wing, which means it could be anywhere, really.

He finds it having been thrown a good distance behind the monster. Knowing he wont be much help without a way to defend himself if the need him, Soonyoung shouts to tell them he’s going to get his weapon, and rushes in that direction. He’s still in pain; everything hurts when he moves, but he can still move, and the damage seems minimal, so he chooses to ignore it. To his luck, the rapier seems almost entirely undamaged. The guard is broken, slightly, but all the damage is to unimportant parts, more than anything that will affect the rapiers usefulness.

 

While their leader goes to retrieve his weapon, the rest of them continue their own tasks. Knowing that Junhui has nearly done what he was meant to, Minghao and Chan get into position to immediately enact their part of the plan.

Junhui, himself, takes the risk of getting closer to the monster even without Soonyoung there to cover Junhui with his Aura. He gets as close as he can, even while it tries to hit him with its wings, or stamp at him with it’s talons when he get’s closer. Then, Junhui jumps at it, grabbing onto its feathered body. He struggles against its flailing in order to climb enough to reach its beak. Luckily it’s not towering, in height at least, so Junhui manages this. Then he struggles against the monster’s attempts to keep him from doing so, and to throw him off, in order to wrap another wire around its beak, tying the wire into a knot.

Without much thought, Junhui stabs the knife the wire is attached to into the monster’s head, before tumbling his way down and back onto the ground. Once there, he rushes past the monster, and in the direction Soonyoung went.

“Done!”

Junhui meets Soonyoung halfway, and the other pulls Junhui towards him and behind a tree. Soonyoung pushes his Aura out, to cover Junhui once again, just in case. Meanwhile, the other two go forward with their part.

Chan holds his weapon out in front of Minghao, grip loose. Though it’s a bit disappointing not to be able to use his own weapon, himself- especially when he just made changes to it- the fact that this was his own plan overshadows that feeling. Minghao presses his hand flat against the staff, then Activates his Aura, sending the weapon flying. Due to the force the weapon hit the monster with, both ends of it immediately react. The Crystals cause a large covering of Ice to appear, locking the monster in place, as well as a explosion of wind to cut into it’s upper left side. If Chan had used it himself, with the force he’s capable of, neither would have been nearly as effective. As is, purple smoke rises out of the new wounds.

His weapon falls the ground, rolling back towards them with its remaining momentum, but Chan doesn’t move to pick it up, instead running at the monster itself. Minghao, while Chan does this, moves further away, to put distance between himself and what Chan is going to do.

Six seconds. Chan knows he’s capable of just that much, for now. After discovering his Aura, to go along with practice, he did more research about monsters, to see how effective his Aura would really be. What he found implied that, at the very least, his Aura would be able to weaken the monster, making it easier to kill. The same way eclectic Crystals would have. So for the six second burst of electricity he’s able to create, he wants to make sure it’s as effective as possible. Making sure the monster can’t escape by trapping in ice, was a way to do that.

Electricity springs to life around him, once he’s close enough to the monster. The area around him becomes bright, covered in light, and everything else seems dim in comparison. Knowing that everyone else is far enough away, Chan doesn’t hold back at all.

It’s only six seconds, and then he’s rushing backwards. Out of breath and stumbling, he picks up his weapon on the way, and moves out of Minghao’s way. The other fires at the monster's head. Being that he just has normal bullets, it isn’t the most effective. However the already done damage- from the Crystals, as well as Chan’s Aura- means that it doesn't need to be. Especially since the monster is nearly immobile, even if the ice around it has partially melted.

Just as Minghao runs out of bullets- in his first clip, at least- the monster’s head lulls, and the purple smoke flowing away from it in waves stops. Only to be replaced by the monster turning to dust of the same colour.

“That went great!” Soonyoung rushed back to them, Junhui following behind. “You did great. You included, Junhui.”

“Thanks?”

“What do we do, now?” Chan asks.

“Well, probably get some proof we did it, just in case.” Soonyoung glances back at where the monster was. “Its dust maybe? Or a feather; we found some of those.”

“How about both?” Junhui offers, and receives a nod in reply.

“Then what?” Minghao takes this chance to holster his gun.

“Then, we head towards that town. Our professor said he’d be waiting there, and the people there will probably be happy to hear about this!”

 

The trip is surprisingly short, all things considered. The team meets up with their professor in little more than a day. When they arrive back, it’s evening, and their professor greets them at the edge of the town. Due to the time, there isn’t much of anyone else around, either.

“You did well,” their professor praises them. “And it looks like none of you are seriously injured, so that’s good. Then, let’s get ready to head back. Another of the first year teams has already headed back, and I got word of that just a while ago.”

“Another of the teams?” Soonyoung questions, quietly.

“Yes. The larger one. Apparently one of them got pretty hurt, so they rushed back to the school right away. You’re all okay, though, so we’ll set out in the morning.” He sighs, shaking his head. “This town isn’t large enough to be prepared for any visitors, so we’ll camp out with the van, and head back first thing in the morning.”

Their professor heads towards said van, while the team all share looks. Silently questioning _who_  got hurt, and how badly. Their worrying wont do them much good, though, so Soonyoung shakes his head and motions everyone closer. “We can’t do anything, so let’s just rest for now. They’re all alive, at least, so I’m sure it’s fine.”

Despite their agreement with this, none of them get very much rest. Worry and questions keeping them up. By the time they set out in the morning, exhaustion from that, as well as their hunt, has caught up with them, leaving them drowsy and barely responsive. Something their professor chooses to ignore, piling them into the van and driving them back in the direction of the school.

It’s because of this that they’re all slow to react to their professor’s startled shouting. Why- when their van flips and rolls- they barely think to focus their Auras. And why Soonyoung doesn’t have a chance to reach out to Junhui.

 

Soonyoung finds himself upside-down, staring down at where Chan’s landed on the roof of the vehicle. The window next to Soonyoung is broken, both Minghao and Junhui missing. He makes the assumption they were thrown from the vehicle, and struggles to free himself from his seat-belt in order to check on Chan.

Chan is alive, and seems not to have broken anything, at least. Likely thanks to his Aura. He fumbles to crawl with Soonyoung out of the vehicle, and see what happened. Outside, a large, elephant-like monster, with goat-like horns is attacking their professor. It’s because their professor is a trained hunter, that he manages to avoid the monster’s attacks. Soonyoung turns away to take in the rest of the scene.

Their van hit a tree- unsurprising since they were driving down a dirt path in the forest- stopping it. Minghao is on his feet, holding his head, and leaning against another tree nearby. That just leaves Junhui, and fear settles into Soonyoung’s chest. Junhui doesn’t have his Aura unlocked, and the rest of them didn’t have a chance to shield him at all.

Soonyoung finds Junhui sitting up, against another of the many trees. He looks up, when Soonyoung stumbles over to him, and then glance back down at his legs. Relief settles in Soonyoung's chest, despite Junhui's state. His right leg is broken, that much is clear from just looking at it. Soonyoung turns back to Junhui’s face, ignoring the sick feeling in his gut that looking at it caused.

“Are you-” His voice cracks, and he clears it, before that turns into a coughing fit. His condition must be worse than he thought, Soonyoung briefly notes. “Are you okay, Junhui?”

“I… think so? Except my leg.” Junhui pulls his not-broken leg up to his chest, and frowns. “I think… I hit my head, too? But It feels fine.”

“You hit your head?” Soonyoung frowns, dropping down next to him. Junhui nods, and Soonyoung considers what could have happened. “Did anything feel weird?”

“Not really? I mean, it felt like my entire body- uh- fell asleep?’

“I think your Aura activated on its own, to protect you. That's what it sounds like, at least.” Soonyoung smiles, patting Junhui on the shoulder. “It must have prioritize your head, though.”

“Well.” Junhui doesn’t seem to know what to say. If he’s honest, Soonyoung doesn’t either. “That’s great but- well- what are we going to do?”

Soonyoung looks away from Junhui, and around at the current situation. Their professor is out of view, now blocked by the monster, but Soonyoung is fairly sure he’s trying to lead the monster away from the students. Minghao has given up on standing, and has dropped to the ground, though he seems to be in less pain, now. Chan hasn’t stood, since getting out of the van.

“I don’t know,” Soonyoung admits. What _should_  they do, in this situation? They aren’t experienced enough for this, let alone in the condition to fight any more. Their professor is a trained hunter, but Soonyoung doubts he isn’t hurt, too. In this situation, it would make the most sense to get help. “There has to be some way for us to contact the school or another professor, right?”

“If there is, our professor probably had it. Or it’s in the van.”

Soonyoung nods, pulling himself to his feet. “I’ll check. I’d tell you to stay put, but…”

“Not going anywhere, like this.”

Soonyoung makes his way back to the van, stopping only the help Chan to his feet. Then he finds his way to the front, finding the passenger side door having been kicked out. It saves him the trouble of trying to force his way in, and he crawls into the vehicle looking for something- _anything_ \- that will help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh yo I'm ML and welcome to me being the literal worst.  
> I said I wouldn't post this until I had more chapters done but I lied.  
> also i hope y'all appreicate that i didn't leave this chapter off where I originally wanted to with just "nobody shielded jun, anyway see you next time with the hip hop unit" okay


	31. Luck and Improvement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just because they're lucky, doesn't mean they hadn't improved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey back at it again with the non-beta'd updates, hah.  
> This one is a bit shorter, but I promise hiphop team will get more time, still.

 

To the west- slightly less west than Soonyoung’s team- outside of the kingdom, and outside of their school, the final team was dropped off for their first hunt. A large, pink, cat-like creature with a scaly tail. This happened a few days ago, now, and the team is beginning to believe, maybe, that they missed something. Seungcheol tries to assure them that, in all likelihood, it was taking the other teams just as long to find the monster they were sent to hunt. His reassurance hasn’t done much, however, to make them less frustrated.

As is, the only hint they’ve got is that it’s most likely north of where they were dropped off. But they’ve been heading north for a while, now, without much luck. At this rate, they’ll reach the beach- and in turn, the ocean- without any signs of it. They’ve caught glances at evidence of monsters, in general, but based on the information they were given, they have to assume everything they’ve found hasn’t been related to the one they were sent after. Thus, they readjusted their course, to avoid other monsters.

So, when they hear the sound of something running at them, none of them are really prepared for it. And, when something jumps at them, swinging claws, they’re slow to react. Wonwoo- the closest- nearly doesn’t get out of the way, only managing to because Hansol reacts a split second faster, grabbing him. They both end up on the ground, under the gaze of the growling monster that fits the description of their target. It’s growling isn’t normal. Sounds off, like it isn’t trying to make sound, so much as it just is.

“Are you both okay?!” Mingyu yells, the furthest from them.

“Yeah!” Hansol calls back, stumbling back to his feet. The monster, clearly not waiting on them to come up with a plan, swipes at him again. It’s paw is hit away, by Seungcheol- using his weapon- as Wonwoo jump back to his feet.

“What now?”

The monster moves to strike again, but this time everyone is able to move away. It rears back, front lowering, like it’s going to pounce. “Run north!” Seungcheol’s shout has everyone immediately moving.

The monster jumps at the nearest person- now Seungcheol- but misses as everyone starts moving. It slides to a stop, spinning around, and moves to jump at him again. Seungcheol jumps right, to avoid it, and tumbles to the ground. The monster wastes no time swiping at him- as he’s now in range- and Seungcheol focuses his Aura all into his arms, holding them up to block the strike. Because his Aura is a Strengthening type, he’s mostly thrown back by it. Though there are scratches, his Aura protected him from most of the damage, so their shallow wounds, quickly scabbing over.

A gunshot rings out, drawing the monster’s- and Seungcheol’s- attention to Wonwoo, who’d fired. As soon as the monster turns to him, Wonwoo turns to run, knowing he, more than the others, needs to keep his distance. While he does that, Hansol rushes over to help Seungcheol to his feet.

“Sorry- you’re- we know you’re the leader, but we have a plan.”

“What’s that?” Seungcheol picks his glaive- discarded when he fell over- and faces Hansol.

“Well we figured you said to go north because we should be close to the water- and that would help Mingyu- so…”

 

They lure the monster north, to the beach. The clear, sunny, weather would leave the place peaceful, had it not been for the monster. As is, it’s hectic. They discovered, in Mingyu’s training, that his Aura doesn’t produce water, so much as it collects it from the air. Or, if there’s a large source of it, that. They hadn’t been able to make his use of it any more dangerous, really, but Mingyu has gained more control. Something which they want to take advantage of.

Wonwoo can’t get too close, especially since he is without his Aura. Not to mention, his weapon is a ranged one. So after getting the monster’s attention away from Seungcheol, he immediately ran, and let Mingyu gain it’s attention. Then he kept running, finding his way to the beach, and then heading east. Because it’s an open area, with nowhere to hide, he needs to put distance between himself and where the monster will end up.

After explaining the plan to Seungcheol, Hansol take’s Mingyu’s place in leading the monster. He doesn’t need to hit it, so much as just get in the way while letting Mingyu leave its sight. Once he has its attention, Hansol runs north-west.

Seungcheol, on the other hand, follows Mingyu straight north.

 

The monster slides, scrambling limbs to not go too far past Hansol, who narrowly avoided being hit, again. As it moves, sand flying around it, to pounce again, an arrow hits it in the side. It’s skin rips around where the arrow strikes, and Mingyu silently cheers for taking a note from Seungkwan and using wind crystals. It spins, immediately rushing towards him, now ignoring Hansol. Which is fine, and exactly what they’d hoped.

Everything relies on Mingyu’s ability to control his own Aura. It’s a risk, and they know that. There’s every chance for this to go wrong, but that’s true no matter the plan, when on a hunt. The monster jump, claws coming down and Mingyu, and he panics. Falls back, narrowly avoiding the strike, and water splashes up around him from both the monster and his own action. He stares up at the monster, as it raises it’s paw up.

“Mingyu!” Seungcheol yells. Then a gunshot rings out, and Wonwoo yells something, but Mingyu can’t make it out.

Instead he focuses around him, and on his own Aura. Pictures what he wants to happen, and watches the water around him rise, wrapping around the monster. It struggles, and Mingyu feels tired, sluggish, the second the water has stopped moving. The second it’s held in place.

There’s a pattern of gunshot, silence, gunshot until Wonwoo is out of bullets, and the monster’s teal waves of energy cover it’s entire middle body. When the gunshot’s stop, Mingyu finds himself being lifted up by Hansol, and watches in the corner of his vision as Seungcheol moves forward. Today’s the first time he’s actually seen the other use his weapon, he realizes, as Seungcheol attacks. Once Mingyu is back on his feet- and Hansol shoves his bow back into his hand, even though MIngyu hadn’t realized he dropped it- Hansol joins in Seungcheol’s efforts. Briefly Mingyu thinks Hansol looks tired, and wonders if he’s using his Aura, too.

“Okay!” Wonwoo calls out, and the other two back away immediately. Mingyu can’t move too far- at least not without letting go of his Aura- so he stays put and trusts that Wonwoo wont hit him. Another entire clip is used, and the monster’s struggling becomes less. Mingyu is thankful for this, because he can’t hold his Aura up anymore. The water drops, splashing around him and pushing his weak form back, and the monster hits the ground.

Then Seungcheol strikes once more, and the monster turns to dust in front of them.

It’s sort of disappointing, in a weird way, that their plan worked so well.

 

Everyone gathers, silently reviewing their own states. Mingyu can’t make himself stand, any more, sitting on the sandy ground, leaning against Wonwoo’s legs. Hansol looks tired, too, but manages to stay up. Seungcheol’s arms sting, but he’s otherwise okay, and Wonwoo is the most alright of them all.

“That was… surprisingly easy,” Hansol says, glancing around the group. He get’s nods in response, and Seungcheol hesitates to speak what he’s thinking. They were lucky. Where they were, and Mingyu’s Aura, were lucky advantages they had. Seeing their states, and knowing how dangerous monsters are, he has no doubts this wouldn’t have gone nearly so well otherwise.

“We were lucky.” At his words, another round of nods, these more disappointed, go around. He wants to tells them that this doesn’t discredit their efforts, or their skills, but is beaten to it by Mingyu.

“Lucky, but we still did pretty well, right? I mean, me and Hansol must have improved a lot, using our Aura’s, for this to work. And Wonwoo set up a shot way quicker than during out last hunt.”

“Yeah…” Seungcheol is surprised. Because this is Mingyu, saying this. Mingyu, who usually has so many doubts about his own improvement. Everyone echos agreement with him, and move onto further conversation on the topic, but Seungcheol is left thinking.

He’s proud of Mingyu, for that. Proud of all of them, really. Yet, part of him wishes he had been the one to tell them that. Part of him wonders if he, as a leader, is doing a good job if they don’t seem to need his words.

“Anyway, we should head back,” He finally says, halting their conversation. “Well, maybe we need a break first.”

 

They’re on their way back, a few hours later. Nearly two hours after that, as they must be nearing where they started- going straight there, instead of following the roundabout way they originally got so far north- something draws their attention. Even though the cover of trees, they can see the shooting, yellow smoke reaching into the skies. It’s not a monster, either, the sound that comes with it and the straightness of the trail say as much.

“What is that?” Wonwoo asks. Seungcheol knows, though, and worry fills his mind.

“A smoke signal.”

“Yeah, but why?” Hansol’s question has all eyes turning to their leader, since he seems to have some idea.

“I honestly can’t believe we didn’t cover this with you. We should have- no, that’s not important right now. There are four types of smoke signals used by professional hunters, but we don’t- because we’re already outside of the kingdom right now there’s no point in us having them with us. So that had to come from one of the vans the teams were brought in, and…”

“And?” Wonwoo’s stresses the word.

“Yellow means that there’s a large monster, and at least one person is injured. Something must have gone wrong for someone, and they need help.”

“So let’s go!” Hansol moves to take a step, only for Seungcheol to grab him.

“We can’t just rush over there without any plan, especially since we aren’t ready to face a larger monster.”

“Then what?”

“We get our professor and- well- rather, we assume he might not have seen it, and head in his direction…” Seungcheol is unsure of this plan. He doesn’t like the idea of leaving whoever it is to whatever threat they signaled about, but he has to think of this logically. They’re not in the condition to fight another fight so soon.

“But what if…”

“No, actually, we wont do that.”

“What?” It’s Mingyu who asks, and his confusion is echoed on the others faces.

“Wonwoo, go get our professor, since you don’t have your Aura, bringing you towards a larger monster knowingly would be reckless. Mingyu, you go with him. You’re far too exhausted to fight.” Seungcheol nods at the two of them. Planing has never been something he was the best at, but he was good enough at it to make it thus far. “Hansol, let’s head that way immediately. It’ll take us a while to get there and by then, at the very least, we should have our Aura’s back at one hundred percent.”

There’s a clear hesitation that settles over the group, and for a second he thinks they might not listen to him. But, then, Hansol nods, and Mingyu and Wonwoo echo agreement before running off in the direction of their professor.

“Hansol.”

“Yeah?”

“Just… this is going to be way more dangerous, so don’t rush in when we reach them.”

“Okay.”

They set off in a run towards the smoke signal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the real "back at it again" is with the cliffhangers.  
> also updating at night because you know, its me. at least it wasn't some weird hour of the morning this time?
> 
> anyway thanks everyone who reads (and who comments <3) i love all of you goodnight


	32. Results

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey,” Minghao starts, drawing Soonyoung’s attention, “are you okay?”
> 
> “Huh? Yeah, I think I’m the least hurt of any of you.”
> 
> “That’s not- you know I’m not asking that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Call out post: me.  
> Left you on a cliffhanger for 8 months.  
> I'm so sorry I really did plan to update quicker, I even started this chapter right after finishing the previous one.

 

Their professor had, thus far, been running around the elephant-like monster in circles. Keeping it’s attention, but not making a move to lead it away. After all, it wouldn’t do to leave the group of students- most of whom are injured- alone without any hope of help. However, when Soonyoung fires off the yellow smoke signal, that stops. Their professor finally draws his weapons- handguns- and fires at the monster, making sure it keeps attention on him, then begins leading it away.

Following this, Soonyoung breathes a sigh of relief, staring up at the yellow smoke for just a moment, before deciding what to do. Firstly, put some amount of distance between them and the van, in case the damage to it is worse than it looks. That, and get their stuff. Their weapons still sit in the back of the van, abandoned when they crashed. Soonyoung drops the single gun in his hand, it now unneeded, and crawls back into the van, reaching for their weapons and haphazardly tossing them out of the vehicle.

That done, he gets out of it, himself, and returns everyone’s things to them. Though none of them seem _entirely_  grateful for this, Soonyoung figures that mostly is a result of none of them being prepared- let alone wanting- to fight.

“Are either of you uninjured enough to help me move Junhui?” Soonyoung asks, looking over the other two. Minghao has, at least, stood back up, and is no longer holding his head. Chan, on the other hand, hasn’t moved from his position on the ground, aside from raising his head.

“If the world ever stops spinning, maybe?” Chan’s response does little but worry Soonyoung more.

After a moment, Minghao finally responds. “Yeah, yeah, sure.”

Minghao and Soonyoung help Junhui to his feet- or, to his one good leg- while Chan stumbles, standing up. The group move to the other side of the small clearing of tree’s they’d landed it. Close enough to the signal that they’ll know if- when- help arrives, but away from the damaged vehicle.

 

Running _away_  from the signal for help is frustrating, despite knowing it’s all a way to help. Running on anxiousness and frustration, it seems both far too long, yet far quicker than expected, when Wonwoo and Mingyu reach their professor. Though, the reason it’s quicker than expected is likely because their professor was already heading in their direction. Wonwoo finds himself being pulled to a stop- by Mingyu, behind him- just as the van they’d arrived in screeches to a halt ahead of them.

“You two!” Their professor opens the door, leaning out to face them. “What’s going on?”

“We don’t know,” Mingyu starts, “we saw the smoke signal and came to find you.”

“Where’s the rest of your team?”

“They headed towards it,” Wonwoo answers this time. Their professor pauses, just barely, as if considering what to do.

“Get in, we’re going to help.”

They waste no time getting into the van, upon being told to, and before they can even sit the van takes off in the direction of the smoke signal.

 

Hansol and Seungcheol run practically head-first into the other team, startling both groups.

“You guys!” Are the first words out of any of them, from Chan. “You’re here? What about the others? What-”

“Whoa, whoa hold on.” Hansol raises a hand, drawing the others words to a stop.

“Mingyu and Wonwoo went to make sure our professor is on his way. Are you guys okay? Well-” he pauses, glancing at Junhui- “mostly okay?”

“It looks worse than it feels.” Junhui shrugs, grimacing when that seems to cause him some amount of pain. “But, hey, I unlocked my Aura?”

“Nice,” Hansol responds, while Seungcheol flinches at the statement.

“Oh. Well, where’s the professor that was with you?”

“Fighting.” Soonyoung motions back behind him, in the direction their professor had taken off in. “We can’t be much help like this.”

“Alright, then let’s wait for the others.”

 

The wait is horribly long. At the very least, it feels like it is. Logically, Soonyoung knows it’s only a few minutes, but with everything that’d gone wrong hanging over them, it was hard not to be impatient. Still, the van containing their remaining professor, and the other two first-years, arrives. It screeches to a halt a few feet away, and their professor jumps out immediately.

“Everyone! Are you okay?”

“Junhui has a broken leg, and the others could have injuries they aren’t aware of.” Seungcheol stands, from where the group has settled on the ground, as he speaks. At his words, their professor nods, moving towards them.

“Alright, everyone get in the van. Wait here, alright? As soon as I return, we’re going to leave. The _second_ I return.” Their professor eyes them, as if he’s expecting argument, but everyone just nods. Satisfied with that, he leaves towards the wreckage of the other van. Presumably, he’s going to find their remaining professor.

Mingyu and Wonwoo get out of the van just long enough to help the others into it. Then, with nothing else to do, they wait. And wait. And Soonyoung feels like he’s going to lose his mind, waiting for their professor to return when he has no idea what the situation is. No idea what could have gone wrong in that time.

“Hey,” Minghao starts, drawing Soonyoung’s attention, “are you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah, I think I’m the least hurt of any of you.”

“That’s not- you know I’m not asking that.”

“I-” Soonyoung pauses, frowning. Is he? Soonyoung thinks about how exhausted they all were, this morning. How none of them had really slept. How unprepared they were when their van went spinning. How frantically he’d returned to awareness, thinking about how nobody had time to shield Junhui. How stressed he’s been this entire time. If he’s honest, Soonyoung doesn’t think he is okay. “No, probably not.”

He’s not sure what kind of response he expected, but it’s not what he gets. Minghao just nods, pats his shoulder, and turns back to look out the window of the van. Maybe there wasn’t a good response to give, to that.

Their professors, both of them, dive into the van approximately two minutes later. Then, they’re on their way back to the school, again, with a clear unrest sitting over them all.

 

Were you to ask Jihoon what the worst news he could receive upon waking, after breaking his arm, he probably wouldn’t have assumed it was the news he did wake to. He’s in his dorm, when he wakes, to his surprise. His arm is in a cast, though he knows it’ll heal quicker due to his Aura, and Jisoo is sitting next to him.

“Oh, you’re up.”

“Yeah?” Jihoon sits up, glancing around the dorm. “The others?”

“They’re all- well- they’re with the other teams. Everyone else got back an hour ago.”

“Okay?”

“Uh- well- they completed their hunts without much problem, but on the way back… Soonyoung’s team- their van was attacked by a monster. They’re all alive, but Junhui broke his leg and apparently Chan has a concussion.”

“Oh.” Jihoon nods, processing the information. “So you were left to tell me this?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, well, take me to them, then?”

“Sure.” Jisoo stands, and offers a hand to Jihoon, which he takes with his uninjured hand.

 

Their professors have cleared out, leaving the dorm with only the first-year students. Which, since Soonyoung’s team isn’t the largest, still means there isn’t much space for anyone to do much of anything but stand around.

“You know, you guys don’t have to be here,” Minghao says, frowning at the others.

“But we do!” Seungkwan huffs, mocking offense.

“Besides, we should test Junhui’s Aura!” Seokmin adds.

“Oh- yeah, you’re right.” Junhui pushes himself to sit up straighter, nodding.

Jeonghan leaves the room, to go get the tester, before returning and handing it over to Junhui. There’s a pause, while they wait for the results, before Junhui holds his arm up, displaying the blue line. Strengthening.

“Wow, I was joking, but you really don’t have any projecting teammates,” Jihoon says, glancing at Soonyoung. In response, the other shrugs.

“Guess so.”

 

The days following everyone’s return are stressful, to say the least. To start with, they still have normal classes to deal with. While they wont be going on another hunt, for a while, the results of the one’s they’ve returned from have them stressed about future ones, anyway. While Junhui and Jihoon both recover from broken bones, and Chan from his concussion, the rest of the first-years deal with something else.

 

Seungkwan, Seokmin, Jeonghan, and Jisoo spend far more time studying than Jihoon can let go. It’s far too suspicious for them to have suddenly taken such an interest in it. Sure, they probably need all the knowledge the can get their hands on, but something doesn’t seem quite right. When confronted, they admit their worries. That their lack of training his holding their team as a whole back. That the injuries gained- not just Jihoon’s broken arm, but Seungkwan’s damaged hands and the other scrapes and bruises he and Jisoo received that they shouldn’t have- is a result of this.

“You’re over-thinking things. If training was enough to prevent this,” Jihoon raises his broken arm, “then I wouldn’t have gotten it. It’s good you guys want to be better, but don’t do it because you’re blaming yourself.”

“Still-” Seungkwan starts, only to be cut off by Jihoon.

“ _Still_ , it wouldn’t be bad for us to learn how to take care of injuries when we’re out there.”

 

Mingyu and Wonwoo grapple with their uselessness during the emergency situation. Mingyu exhausted his Aura so quickly, so easily, that he was useless from then on, and Wonwoo couldn’t even say that much. They both know, logically, that they just need to improve. Mingyu needs to get more control of his Aura, and strengthen it’s power, while Wonwoo will need to do the same, once his is unlocked. Knowing this, though, doesn’t ease the feeling of helplessness that they had, running _away_ from the danger, to get help.

“I know I shouldn’t feel like- I- I know we couldn’t have done anything even if we had gone to help,” Mingyu admits, sitting in their dorm, staring at the floor.

“But it sucks.” Wonwoo’s statement- his agreement- is somehow a relief to Mingyu.

“Yeah.”

“Have- have I told you why I wanted to be a hunter?”

“Well- I- not really?”

“Money.”

“Oh.”

“But- I-” Wonwoo sighs, putting his face in his hands- “If I’m a hunter, then- then I want to help, too. I don’t want to be a hunter, just to sit back an feel useless again.”

“Me too.”

“You too?”

“I- I wanted to be a hunter for arbitrary reasons. Because that’s what was expected of me, but…”

“Yeah.”

 

Minghao struggles with wasted time. With how long it took them to finish their hunt- if they’d done it faster, would they have avoided this result? With how long it took him to pull himself together, while Soonyoung took action, and the others injuries meant they couldn’t. With the fact that his not getting proper training meant that he was _wasting time_  that he shouldn’t need, to catch up with the leaders skill levels.

“I want to increase Aura training.”

“What?” Soonyoung looks up at Minghao, from where he’s sitting at a cafeteria table.

“I want to have Aura training more often. Mine can being really useful if I master it, but I can’t do that unless I train more than I am.”

“Okay. Sure, let’s do more training, then.”

 

And Soonyoung… Soonyoung grapples with the realization that this is what being a leader is really going to be like. He already knew he had to start taking more responsibility. He was prepared for that, trying his best for that. But he should have known there was more to it than that. Even if there was nothing he could do to prevent what happened, everything that happened to his team was his responsibility. Making sure they didn’t get hurt, or dealing with what happened when they did, was his job. Making choices, and dealing with consequences, even from things that weren’t a result of his choices, was something he was going to have to do.

Soonyoung just isn’t sure if he can.

Junhui and Chan’s injuries weigh heavily on him. A weight that he can’t shake, despite knowing he couldn’t have done anything. Maybe if he’d spent more time with Chan, getting his Aura stronger would have prevented his concussion. Maybe if he’d unlocked Junhui’s earlier, even if it would have exhausted him, it would have lessened his injuries.

 _Maybe if- if- if he-_ Soonyoung sighs.

“Maybe if someone else was the leader.”

 _No_ , Soonyoung shakes his head. That’s a pointless thought. For now, rather than think about that, he should do what he can to make sure the next time they’re sent on a hunt, they’re more prepared.


	33. Complete Teams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's me, back at it again with the not updating for month and then updating twice in one day.  
> are any of your surprised at this point?

Two weeks after the hunts, Seungcheol becomes aware that the first-year students are falling apart. Not literally, their injuries are all mostly-healed, by now. No, they were what could be called: emotional disasters. It was a bit less so with the largest team, since Jihoon seemed to have a good handle on assuring them- with less than reassuring words- that any failures during their hunt weren’t to be taken onto themselves.

The rest, however? Not taking things so well. Seungcheol couldn’t deny his own teams states- Hansol seemed to be the only one not taking anything that happened too personally- let alone what was going on with Soonyoung’s team. Or, really, with Soonyoung himself.

Which is frustrating for a number of reasons. Starting with the fact that their states wouldn’t help them any, and ending with the fact that he didn’t know what to do about it. Assuring Mingyu and Wonwoo that they shouldn’t feel bad about anything that happened doesn’t help any, because they already know this. They know, but still do. He’s not in a position where he can do much for Soonyoung’s team, without it seeming like he doesn’t trust Soonyoung with his own team. Leaving him unsure what to do with his awareness of everyone’s states.

 

Third-year students are out on hunts, apparently, and as such a few of their professors aren’t around. That leaves them with only half-days for the next week, or so, and that time is meant to be used for extra training. Something the first-years know they desperately need. However, Seungcheol finds himself sitting at a table in the cafeteria, leaned against it in thought. Across from him, Hansol looks over notes Seungcheol gave him about some of the material learned in combat school, that they didn’t cover during their initial catch-up session. To his left, Jihoon is writing _something._

“Hey, you guys think we should… do something about the others?” Seungcheol asks, leaning against his crossed arms.

“Mhm.” Jihoon nods. “Don’t know what to do, though.”

“Uh, well, should we get everyone together for something?” Hansol offers.

“We do that anyway. Training.”

“Something that isn’t that.”

“Well… first I think it would ease some worries if we finished unlocking everyone’s Aura’s.” Seungcheol sighs. “And then? Maybe find something less related to our future careers.”

“I guess.”

 

When they ask, Soonyoung is perfectly willing to unlock the Aura of one of Jihoon’s teammates. Considering there are only three people’s left to unlock, and two of them are part of that team, it seems like the only logical thing to do.

So, the three team gather together yet again. This time they anticipate that someone is bound to end up falling over, when they do it, and someone stands behind both parts of the process. Seungcheol goes first, with Wonwoo, and his remaining teammates each stand behind one of them.

“You ready?” Seungcheol asks, raising his hands to their positions.

“Yeah.” There’s a determination in Wonwoo’s expression that Seungcheol doesn’t recognize. With a nod, Seungcheol starts to push his Aura out, at Wonwoo. Any expectation that Seungcheol has about it being easier the third time, is wrong. His Aura bounces back at him with more force than the other times, and he stumbles back against Hansol.

“You okay?” Hansol asks, glancing at both him and Wonwoo, who shakes his head.

“Yeah, no, I’m fine.” Wonwoo’s response doesn’t sound entirely convincing, but it’s not like there’s much to be done.

 

Jihoon takes to unlocking Seungkwan’s Aura, himself, leaving Jisoo for Soonyoung. Jihoon braces himself for the inevitable negative reaction unlocking the other’s Aura will cause, when he starts. Seungkwan, for his part, seems more nervous than anyone else had.

“Calm down, Seungkwan.”

“Right, right, sorry.”

Jihoon finds himself stumbling away from Seungkwan, vision blurring. He blinks, once, twice, before it starts to clear and he can see Seungkwan being lead to sit down.

“See, nothing to worry about.”

“Yeah.”

 

Soonyoung is surprised, when unlocking Jisoo’s Aura results in little more than exhaustion and stumbling back when it happens. It is, possibly, the easiest time he’s had with any of them, and that shows.

“Maybe it does get easier over time.”

“Speak for yourself.” Seungcheol mutters, leaning against a wall.

“I am. It was easier this time.” Soonyoung grins, and gets an annoyed groan in response.

 

All dramatics are thrown aside when testing the remaining three’s Aura. Everyone's eager, after everything else, to just get through with it. Wonwoo goes first. It take a while for him to seemingly figure out how to access his Aura, even with instruction. But, once he does, the tester displays a blue line.

Seokmin gives a small cheer at that. “Welcome to the Strengthening club.”

“Uh, we’re a club now?” Junhui raises an eyebrow at him, but Seokmin just nods.

“Yep.”

“This is news to me,” Seungcheol says, tilting his head.

“Never mind, it’s just me and Wonwoo, you two suck.”

The tester is passed to Seungkwan next. Despite his earlier nervousness, Seungkwan seems to figure it out the fastest, his tester beeping quicker than anyone previously had. Green- Projecting.

“Do we have a club, too?”

“I don’t know, do we?” Hansol looks to Soonyoung, who shrugs.

“Sure.”

“Then yes.”

“Sweet.” Seungkwan grins, and passes the tester to Jisoo. It takes a few seconds, before the tester beeps with the final result. Another Projecting type. “Hey, welcome to the club Jisoo.”

“Can you, who just joined, welcome me?”

“I just did.”

“That’s not fair, they all went along with the club joke.” Seokmin pouts at Seungcheol and Junhui, neither of whom seem perturbed by this.

“I want to officially, right now, state for the record: we don’t have a club, either.” Jihoon looks between Mingyu, Jeonghan, Minghao, and Chan.

“Yeah, no, I saw that coming.” Jeonghan shrugs.

“Good,” Minghao says, simply. The other two, on the other hand, both frown at this information.

“It’s okay, you two, we can start a not-in-a-club-club.” Seokmin grin at them, only to have the others laugh at this statement.

“That’s a horrible name for a club!” Seungkwan doesn’t seem at all bothered when Seokmin turns to glare at him.

“You stay out of this, club have-er.”

 

“So,” Jisoo starts, “what do we do now?”

“What do you mean?” Mingyu raises an eyebrow at him.

“I just- I mean obviously we train our Aura’s, but- I don’t know. We all have them now, so is there like a next step?”

“Oh, huh.”

“Besides training your Aura’s, not really,” Seungcheol answers, shrugging. “Besides that it’s just a matter of getting stronger, learning more, and strengthening teamwork. Which, you know, will come with time.”

“Time, right.”

“You knew this would take time. There’s a reason we’re going to be here for years, before we can be hunters. Don’t try and push yourself to rush things for no reason. All of you,” Jihoon adds, frowning at them. “Now, we’re all tired, right?”

“I think that’s just you.”

“Fight me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooo I think, after all the stress from the hunt chapters, the teams deserve some time to just spend together, right?  
> yeah. that'll probably be how things are next chapter, too.
> 
> also i realized after i posted last chapter that at the end of it i 100% forgot to mention what seungcheol and hansol were going through so firstly) whoops and secondly) that's why this chapter starts how it does


	34. Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look at me  
> not waiting six months to update  
> whoo
> 
> also don't worry when you start this chapter it wont be another 4000 words of exposition (it's not even 4000 words at all)

“Assuming you’ve all been paying attention to my lessons,” One of their professors speaks, where he stands at the front of the room, “I’m sure one of you can tell me what the different districts of Hunters are?”

Wonwoo can not, in fact, tell him what the different districts of hunters are. He’s certain they’ve been told, during one of their many lessons in the past weeks since returning, but he couldn’t say. He’s been far to distracted, caught up in what happened during their last hunt still, to retain said information. So he panics as their professor looks around the first-year class. Beside him, Mingyu seems to sense his panic, and raises his hand.

“Mingyu?”

“Yes. There are four districts- uh- they are- the four districts are: Defense, Immediate Action, Counsel, and Recovery.”

“Correct.” Their professor nods, and Mingyu breathes a sigh. Wonwoo has no idea what any of those districts are.

 

“Hey, Seungcheol?” Wonwoo gets his leaders attention as classes are dismissed.

“Yeah?”

“Uh- so- classes are a thing. That we have.”

“Yes?”

“I… may not have been paying enough attention in them lately?” Wonwoo shrugs, avoiding Seungcheol’s surprised gaze.

“Oh. How about we all get together to review again?”

“Yeah, sure.”

 

“Do I need to be here? I remember all of this perfectly!” Hansol says, leaning over a copy of their __Hunters Laws and Organizations__  text book.

“We’re a team, and if the rest of us are failing, you have to suffer with us,” Mingyu argues. He shrugs when Hansol frowns at him.

“Can’t fail if they don’t test us.”

“You can leave.” Wonwoo sighs, picking up his own book. “I’ve been… distracted lately, is all.”

“Like literally everyone else has been?” Hansol sighs. “Fine, fine, lets go over this, then.”

“I just said you could leave?”

“Yeah, but what kind of teammate would I be if I did?”

Seungcheol laughs at that, finally joining the conservation. “Alright, then, where should we start?”

“I missed literally everything about the districts,” Wonwoo says, frowning down at his text book.

“Okay, well, that makes two of us.”

“You’re supposed to be the leader!”

“I never claimed to have a good memory, though.”

“Looks like it’s just us that pay attention, Mingyu.” At that, Mingyu looks at Hansol, vaguely guilty. “What? Not you too.”

“No, I remember, but- uh- only because I grew up around Hunters.”

“Wow.”

“Okay, well, what page is this on, even?” Wonwoo draws their attention back to him, and Mingyu shrugs.

“No clue.”

“Thanks.”

“No need, I have this memorized, remember?” Hansol grins, stretching his arms out in front of him, and rolling his shoulders. “Okay, so the four districts are? Anyone that isn’t Mingyu.”

“Uh,” Wonwoo frowns, trying to remember what Mingyu said earlier in the day, “Defense, Immediate Action, Counsel, and Recovery?”

“Ding! Correct. Can you guess what they are?”

“No, that’s why we’re here.”

“Defense is the district that assigns hunters to the borders, right?” Seungcheol answers, without looking up from where he’s flipping through his own text-book.

“Yep!”

“Am I really not allowed to answer at all?” Mingyu mutters, frowning.

“Fine, fine, you can answer one, Mingyu.”

“Recovery are the hunters in any team assignment that act as support. Uh- it also includes the hunters that are sent out when villages or towns request help. The ones that find out all the information needed for the Hunters that are actually going to do the hunting.” Mingyu nods to himself, as if assuring himself he’s correct.

“Yep. They’re like the Seokmin’s of the real Hunter world.”

“Oh, then who’s the Defense district of our school?”

“Teachers.”

“Fair.”

“Ah!” Seungcheol finally looks up from his book. “Counsel is a district for mostly-retired Hunters who direct officials and other important people on security against monsters.” There’s a slight pause, where it’s clear he’s not done speaking yet. “The ones that aren’t retired usually have some role in our schools.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that part.” Hansol frowns, leaning so he can look at Seungcheol’s book. Only, it doesn’t have that last piece of information, either. “Wait- where’d you get that from?”

“My dad.” Seungcheol laughs, shrugging. “He used to teach here, remember? And we had this little plaque in our house that said he was a member of the Counsel district. It was probably the only thing he owned that actually said he was a Hunter.”

“Oh, huh. Wonder if we’d get bonus points putting that information on a test?”

“Worth a shot,” Wonwoo says. “So, Immediate Action? Seems pretty self-explanatory.”

“Hey, we haven’t even decided who’s the Counsel district of our group.” Hansol huffs, crossing his arms.

“Seungcheol?” Mingyu offers, motioning to the person in question.

“Nah.”

“Jihoon?” Seungcheol’s response gets a nod.

“Yeah, probably. Or Maybe me, with my infinite wisdom.”

“Hansol don’t you want to be a- like- Immediate Action hunter?”

“Don’t call me out like that.”

“Anyway,” Wonwoo stresses the word, “Immediate Action district is the group that sends and assigns hunters to hunts, then? I guess they probably handle emergency calls, too.”

“Yep,” Hansol says, nodding. “So, what’s next on the review schedule?”

“Well,” Mingyu starts, “There was this thing about revoking Hunters licensees?”

“Oh, that…”

 

Seungkwan has never particularly cared for lying. Which, he thinks, is probably ironic for someone who’s entire current career path is only possible because he’s lying. Still, whenever he actively has to lie, he feels a horrible pressure in his chest that he just can’t shake.

Receiving mail from his mother, in response to his letters about how, “combat school,” is going fills him with this same dread. Because as much as he likes hearing about how things are back home, and how much he misses his family, knowing he’ll have to keep lying makes him feel awful. Which is why he sits on his bed, re-reading the latest letter again, and again, trying if figure out how to respond. Thus far he’s been using Jihoon’s experience as a base for his lies, but how long can he keep that up, when the two are so vastly different people?

“What’s got you so sad-looking?” Speaking of his leader, Jihoon is staring at him from the doorway, eyebrow raised.

“Just letters.”

“Ah.” Jihoon walks over, climbing up to look over the letter sitting in front of Seungkwan. “Can you just get away with saying you’re sort of in a routine of things, so nothing exciting happened?”

“I guess…” Seungkwan breathes another sigh. “Hey… why don’t you get letters?”

“Oh.” Jihoon pauses, seeming to heavily consider his response. “I’ll get one eventually.”

“Eventually?”

“My parents are pretty busy. Supportive, but.” Jihoon shrugs, not meeting Seungkwan’s eyes. After a second, he breathes a sigh. “They’re still… dealing with my combat school tuition. So, you know, they’re working a lot. They’ll write when they get time.”

“I see.”

“But, hey, if you don’t want to think about your response to your family, you could always spend this time training instead.”

“Wow.” Seungkwan laughs, nodding. “Sure, okay.”

 

Jeonghan is sitting in the cafeteria, idly moving the food around in front of him without actually eating. He’s been considering something for a while, but he can’t quite figure out if he’s right. If he’s just thinking too much, trying to connect things that aren’t actually connected.

“You okay there?” Jeonghan looks up as Jisoo sits across from him. In response, he nods, before looking down at his food with a frown. After a second, he shakes his head, and looks back up.

“Hey. You said your parents were hunters, right?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s just… the more time goes on, the more sure I am that you’re familiar somehow. But I can’t place your name, so I’m not sure. My parents worked with hunters, so maybe I’m just over thinking it, but…”

“Oh, huh.” Jisoo pauses, humming in thought. “What about the name Joshua?”

“Joshua?”

“It’s the name on my real transcripts.” Jisoo- Joshua? He frowns, leaning against the table. “It’s also the names my parents asked for my first sword under. Before they decided I shouldn’t be a hunter.”

“Actually,” Jeonghan considers it, “yeah, that does sound familiar.”

Jeonghan vaguely remembers being much younger, and his parents talking to a pair of hunters about making a swords. Their son, presumably, had been standing behind them and avoided Jeonghan's gaze when the other looked at him. When their conversation ended, Jeonghan's parents had turned to him, and asked if he wanted to help them with something. It was one of the few things he was allowed to do, to help them with simple things. They’d showed him the sketches they had, and asked if he wanted to do the wrappings for the hilt of the sword. He’d meticulously done just that, when it came time, and had actually been pretty sad to let his hard work walk away from him, when the pair of hunters returned. His parents had told him not to be sad, that someone was benefiting from his hard work. In turn, the hunters had mentioned that the sword was exactly what they wanted, from the first real weapon their son would be using.

Jeonghan remembers being slightly bitter that their kid was allowed to train, while his parents treated him like he was so fragile.

“Stuff like this makes the world feel much smaller, huh?” Jisoo asks, though he doesn’t seem to be looking for a response.

“Something like that.”

 

Junhui finds himself staring up at the sky, the breath knocked out of him from hitting the ground. Trying to regain his breath, he stumbles back to his feet, and faces Minghao again. “Was that necessary?”

“Hitting you, or using my Aura to do it?”

“Your Aura!”

“Yes.” Minghao shrugs, not at all looking sorry. “What? You wanted to train your Aura more, right?”

“I should have asked Chan.”

“No you should have asked Seokmin, or Soonyoung. They couldn’t electrocute you.”

“Yeah, but Chan’s nice.”

“Then why __did__  you ask me?”

“Don’t know.” Junhui shrugs. But he does know. Because having someone he can talk to, who’s first language is the same as his, is nice sometimes. Or it would be, had Minghao not been a jerk. “Hey, if you had stayed there, where would you have gone?”

“Can you- can you use literally any descriptive words so I know what you’re talking about?”

“Oh, right, the other kingdom. If you could have finished combat school there, would you have gone to a different hunters academy?”

“I don’t know, probably?” Minghao pauses, considering this. “I guess… I hadn’t actually decided yet.”

“Mhm.”

“What?”

“I just- I wanted to come here, in the first place. This was already my choice, I’m just wondering if it was at all yours, or if this was just convenient.”

“Convenient?” Minghao huffs the word out, like it personally offended him. Maybe it had. “Nothing about this was convenient. You know what would have been convenient? Giving up on being a hunter, stop trying to risk my life for a goal that I don’t even know _why_ I have. Do something easier, or more productive, with my life instead of putting it in mortal danger, and lying in order to do it!”

Junhui is startled by the response, flinches at the tone of Minghao’s voice. It’s true, though. None of them were doing anything convenient, in the end. Not Minghao, or Junhui, or any of the first years. Not even their leaders, who did everything properly. There was nothing convenient about a career that constantly asked that you be willing to die for it.

“Sorry- that wasn’t what I meant,” Junhui says, finally. Minghao nods, frowning.

“Yeah, sorry, I know that wasn’t- I know. It’s just frustrating.”

“When- when my parents were trying to argue with me about going to the school they wanted me to,” Junhui starts, drawing Minghao’s gaze away from the ground where it had landed, “they told me that it was more convenient. That it just made sense, because of that. I guess I couldn’t really- I hadn’t let go of that.”

“It’s fine.” Minghao shrugs, crossing his arms. “So, your Aura?”

“Please warn me if you’re going to hit me.”

“No promises.”

 

Though it been more than a week since the third years left, most of them had yet to return. With most of the third years still out on hunts, with them a lot of the schools professors missing, when alarm bells start ringing through the school, it’s clear among the first and second year students that they aren’t prepared for an emergency. An announcement plays over the schools intercom, one of their professors voices filling the panicked spaces of the school.

“Everyone please remain calm and go inside at once. A large monster is loose on school grounds.”

 

Most everyone has the foresight to immediately go for their weapons. Though not everyone was without them to start with. With that, they gather in groups, inside the buildings, and try to figure out what’s going on. Another announcement plays, “thought we recommend you all remain inside, and do not engage with the monster, you are permitted to act as seen fit by your acting leaders.”

Soonyoung and his team are in the dorm building, gathered together and having been ready to go train.

Seungkwan, Seokmin, and Hansol had been together, when the first announcement happened. They’d been returning from training, themselves, and rushed into the nearest building- the main actual learning facility on the campus- and now stood inside, wondering what to do. Without either of their leaders, they technically didn’t have anyone to tell them what actions were deemed fit for the situation.

Wonwoo, Mingyu, Jeonghan, and Jisoo were also together, at the time. But, being that they were in the cafeteria, they were without weapons. At least, without their own. Theoretically they could go upstairs to the stores, and probably find weapons, but that was a disaster waiting to happen, too. Equally without leaders, and with their lack of weapons, they didn’t know what to do.

The remaining two leaders, on the other hand, had been together discussing the remaining problems with the states of the other students. With the announcement, they had agreed on one thing: the announcement had to be ignored. Not the warning, but the instruction. Rather than heading inside- they already were, anyway- they both take off in search of their teammates.

Making sure their teammates are safe is more important, after all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should feel bad about another cliff hanger but i really don't
> 
> i know i didn't do anything with seokmin, soonyoung, or chan this chapter and that's because.................  
> reasons.   
> i just didn't have anything for them, for this chapter. but uh, I will make time for everyone eventually.
> 
> i've had the joshua-jeonghan convo planned for so long guys


End file.
